MOSCOW. Oct 22 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his hope that the next United States administration will reply to Russia's offer to cooperate on information security in cyberspace, and be ready for a dialogue on the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) and other global security issues.
"Recently I offered the United States to begin a comprehensive discussion of the issues concerning international information security. We understand that, with the election campaign, U.S. politicians currently don't have time for that, but we hope that the next administration, whatever it may be, will respond to our proposal to start a conversation on this topic. As well as other points of the Russian-American agenda, which are: the global security problem, the fate of the strategic offensive arms treaty, well, and a number of other issues," Putin said during the 17th annual meeting of the international Valdai Discussion Club on Thursday.
"You know yourselves, there are many topics ripe for frank discussion. We are ready for their constructive discussion on a par," Putin said.
There was a time when all crucial international issues would be discussed and solved in substance between Washington and Moscow, but that time was now gone, he said.
"We hope, we consider establishing bilateral dialogue, in this particular instance on the cybersecurity agenda, to be an important step to a much broader discussion involving many other countries and organizations," Putin said.
It would be a pity if the U.S. chose not to join in this work, but even so Russia is still ready to cooperate with all interested partners on this matter, he said.