[Except where noted, Vladimir Putin's words are in Russian. The transcript in English is via the translator.]
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, our negotiations have been held in a constructive atmosphere of mutual respect. We have very thorough negotiations that were quite useful. I would like to thank once again my American counterpart for the proposal to travel out here to Alaska. It only makes sense that we've met here because our countries, though separated by the oceans, are close neighbors.
So when we've met, when I came out of the plane and I've said, "Good afternoon, dear Neighbor, very good to see you in good health and to see you alive," I think that is very neighborly and I think that's some kind words that we can say to each other. We are separated by the Strait of Bering. Though there are two islands only between the Russian Island and the US Island, there are only four kilometers apart.
We are close neighbors, and it's a fact. It's also important that Alaska has to do with our common heritage, uh, common history between Russia and the US. And many positive events have to do with that territory. Still, there is tremendous cultural heritage back from the Russian America, for example, Orthodox churches and a lot of, uh, more than 700 geographical names of Russian origin.
During the Second World War it was here in Alaska that was the origin of the legendary air bridge for the supply of military aircraft and other equipment under the Lend-Lease Program. It was a dangerous and treacherous route over the vast emptiness of ice. However, the pilots of both countries did everything to bring close to the victory.
They risked their lives and they gave it all for the common victory. I was just in, in the city of Magadan in Russia and there is a memorial there dedicated to the Russian and the US pilots. And there are two flags, the US flag and the Russian flag. And I know that here as well there is such a memorial. There is a military burial place several kilometers away from here.
The Soviet pilots that buried there who died during that dangerous mission, we're thankful to the citizens and the government of US for carefully taking care of their memory. I think that's very worthy and noble. We'll always remember other historical examples when our countries defeated common enemies together in the spirit of battle, camaraderie and allyship that supported each other and facilitated each other.
I'm sure that this heritage will help us rebuild and foster mutually beneficial and equal ties at this new stage, even during the hardest conditions. It is known that there have been no summits between Russia and the US for four years, and that's a long time. This time was very hard for bilateral relations.
And let's be frank, they have fallen to the, to the lowest point since this, the, the Cold War. I think that's not benefiting our countries and the world as a whole. It is apparent that sooner or later we had to amend the situation to move on from the confrontation to dialogue. And in this case, a personal me, meeting between the heads of state has been long overdue naturally, um, under the condition of serious and painstaking work.
And this work has been done in general. Me and President Trump have very good direct contact. We've spoken multiple times. We spoke frankly on the phone and, uh, special envoy of the President, Mr. Witkoff traveled out to Russia several times. Our, um, advisors and heads of foreign ministries, um, kept in touch all the time and you know fully well that one of the central issues was the situation around Ukraine.
We see the strife of the administration and President Trump personally to help facilitate the resolution of the Ukrainian conflict and his strife to get to the crux of the matter, to understand this history is precious. As I've said, the situation in Ukraine has to do with fundamental threats to our security.
Moreover, we've always considered the Ukrainian nation and I have said it multiple times, a brotherly nation, however strange it may sound in these conditions. We have the same roots and everything that's happening is a tragedy for us and terrible wound. Therefore, the country is sincerely interested in putting an end to it. At the same time, we're convinced that in order to to make the settlement lasting and long term, we need to eliminate all the primary roots, the primary causes of that conflict.
And we've said it multiple times to consider all legitimate concerns of Russia and to reinstate a just balance of security in Europe and in world on the whole. And I agree with President Trump as he has said today, that naturally the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well. Naturally, we're prepared to work on that.
I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine. We expect that Kiev and European capitals will perceive that constructively, and that they won't throw a wrench in the works. They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings on to conduct provocations to, uh, torpedo the nascent progress.
Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow. It's, it's still very symbolic. Still we have a, a growth of 20%. As I've said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work. It is clear that the U.S. and Russian investment and business poten- cooperation has tremendous potential.
Russia and the U.S. can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high-tech, and in space exploration. We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible in our international context. For example, between the forest of Russia and the west coast of the U.S. Overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation.
It is symbolic that not far away from here, the border between Russia and the U.S., there was a so-called international dateline. I think you can step over literally from yesterday into tomorrow, and I hope that we'll succeed in that in political sphere. I would like to thank President Trump for our joint work, for the well-wishing and trustworthy tone of our conversation.
It's important that both sides are result-oriented, and we see that the president of the U.S. has a very clear idea of what, what he would like to achieve. He sincerely cares about prosperity of his nation. Still, he understands that Russia has its own national interests. I expect that today's agreements will be the starting point not only for the solution of the Ukrainian issue, but also will help us bring back businesslike and pragmatic relations between Russia and the U.S. And in the end, I would like to add one more thing.
I'd like to remind you that in 2022, during the last contact with the previous administration, I tried to convince my previous American colleague that it should not -- the situation should not be brought to the point of no return when it would come to hostilities, and I said it quite directly back then that it's a big mistake.
Today when President Trump saying that if he was the president back then there will be no war. And I'm quite sure that it would indeed be so. I can confirm that. I think that overall me and President Trump have built a very good businesslike and trustworthy contact and have every reason to believe that moving down this path we can come, and the sooner the better to the end of the conflict in Ukraine.
Thank you. Thank you.
Well, thank you very much Mr. President. That was, uh, very profound. And I will say that I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on, most of them I would say, a couple of big ones that, uh, we haven't quite got there, but we've made some headway. So, uh, there's no deal until there's a deal.
I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up, uh, the various people that I think are appropriate, and I'll of course call up President Zelenskyy and tell him about today's meeting. So it's ultimately up to them. They're gonna have to agree with, uh, what Marco and Steve and some of the great people from the Trump administration who've come here.
Scott and, uh, John Radcliffe, thank you very much. But we have, uh, some of our really great leaders. They've been doing a phenomenal job. We also have some tremendous Russian, uh, business representatives here. And I think, you know, everybody wants to deal with us. We've become the hottest country anywhere in the world in a very short period of time.
And, uh, we look forward to that. We look forward to dealing. We're gonna try and get this over with. We, we really made some, uh, great progress today. I've always had a fantastic relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir. We had, uh, many, many, uh, tough meetings, good meetings. We were, uh, interfered with by the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.
That made it a little bit tougher to deal with, but he understood it. Uh, I think he's probably seen things like that during the course of his career. He's seen (laughs), he's seen it all. But we had to put up with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax. He knew it was a hoax, and I knew it was a hoax, but what was done was very criminal.
But it made it harder for us to deal as a country in terms of the business and all of the things that we'd like to have dealt with. But, uh, we'll have a, a good chance when this is over. So just to put it very quickly, I'm gonna start making a few phone calls and tell 'em what happened. But we had it extremely productive meeting and many points were agreed to. Uh, there are just a very few that are left, some are not that significant.
One is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there. I would like to thank, uh, President Putin and his entire team, whose faces who I know in many cases. Otherwise, other than that, whose, whose faces I get to see all the time in the newspapers.
You're very, you're almost as famous as the boss. But, uh, especially this one right over here (laughs). But we had some good meetings over the years, right? Good productive meetings over the years, and we hope to have that in the future. But let's do the most productive one right now. We're gonna stop really, 5, 6, 7,000, thousands of people a week from being killed.
And President Putin wants to see that as much as I do. So, uh, again, Mr. president, I'd like to thank you very much, and we'll speak to you very soon and probably see you again very soon. Thank you very much, Vladimir.
[In English] And next time in Moscow.
Oh, that's an interesting one.
[Laughs]
I don't know, I'll get a little heat on that one, but I, uh, I could see it possibly happening. Thank you very much, Vladimir.
[In English] Thank you.
And thank you all. Thank you. Thank you.
[In English] Thank you so much.
[Crosstalk]