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Shkruar nga PamfletiAfter the September 11 attacks, Washington and Moscow began close cooperation against radical Islamists, creating several joint working groups.
Former US President Bill Clinton proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin a joint US-Russia effort against international terrorism, according to recently declassified records of their first summit.
The transcript of the exchange, which took place in the Kremlin on June 4, 2000, was released Thursday following a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, an independent research institute at George Washington University.
According to the minutes, Clinton asked Putin: "What about counterterrorism cooperation between our countries, particularly against Osama bin Laden?"
He then proposed a "coordinated strategy" between Washington and Moscow.
"We need to bring our people together to develop a comprehensive approach to dealing with [then-Al-Qaeda leader] Bin Laden," Clinton is quoted as saying.
At the time, newly elected President Putin was facing an insurgency in the North Caucasus. He reportedly said that a "united front is needed" to confront what he called a "Terrorist International."
The leaders also discussed the prospect of Russia joining NATO, with Clinton acknowledging that the military bloc's eastward expansion was perceived as a "problem" by many in Moscow.
"There should be full-scale relations between Russia and NATO," Putin is quoted as saying.
After the September 11 attacks, Washington and Moscow began close cooperation against radical Islamists, creating several joint working groups.
However, as the US moved towards military intervention, Russia became increasingly cautious. Moscow condemned the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, seeing it as a violation of international law and a troubling precedent of fabricated pretexts for the use of force.
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