Clinton, Putin Agree on Summit

President Clinton and newly elected Russian President Vladimir V. Putin will hold their first summit as early as next month to discuss a wide range of issues, such as arms control and the war in Chechnya, the White House said Saturday.

After a 10-minute telephone conversation that Clinton initiated around midday from Bakersfield, the leaders agreed to meet at an as yet unannounced site. The president was in the Central Valley city after a visit to Sequoia National Forest, where he signed a proclamation declaring a large chunk of the forest a national monument.

The announcement of the summit comes at a time when Clinton is making a special effort to play the role of peacemaker around the world.

With just nine months left in his second term, the expectations that he can accomplish much more on the domestic front are dwindling, particularly with an antagonistic, Republican-controlled Congress. So Clinton in recent weeks has put in long hours working to promote peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat is scheduled to meet with him Thursday at the White House.

During his visit to South Asia last month, Clinton tried to promote a peaceful resolution of the Indo-Pakistani conflict over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

White House spokesman Jake Siewert said further details of the Clinton-Putin summit will be released soon, but he had few to offer Saturday.

“They agreed to meet before the G-8 meeting,” which is scheduled for July 21-23 in Okinawa, Japan, Siewert said. But he said the summit will be held at some other location.

During the two presidents’ telephone conversation, Siewert said, Clinton thanked Putin for his personal involvement in encouraging Russia’s lower house of parliament, the Duma, to ratify the START II treaty last week, calling the action “an important step forward.”

Clinton said the vote will result in a two-thirds reduction in the number of strategic nuclear weapons that the former Soviet Union and the United States maintained at the height of the Cold War.

The treaty, which was ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1996, is the most comprehensive arms control agreement between the two nuclear states, requiring each to roughly halve its arsenal by 2007. The pact will reduce the strategic nuclear forces of each country to no more than 3,500 nuclear warheads.

In addition to a “shared agenda” on economic reforms and continued arms reductions, Clinton also mentioned several “problem areas” that he expects to discuss with Putin, including the continued fighting in the separatist Russian republic of Chechnya, according to Siewert.

Despite such “tough issues,” Clinton expressed to Putin his hope that they can “find a way forward” on all those issues, Siewert told reporters after Clinton landed in Palo Alto early Saturday afternoon to play a quick round of golf before heading to Beverly Hills for a Democratic fund-raiser Saturday night.