Medvedev wants strong relationship with Obama

[November 13, 2008]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he hopes for a normal working relationship with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.

Last week, as congratulations poured in to Obama from around the world on his election victory, Medvedev gave a stern warning about U.S. plans to base missile defense units in Eastern Europe.

On Thursday, however, the Russian leader softened his tone.

"I've had a good conversation with (Obama). I hope that it'll be possible to build normal partner relations with the new administration," he said in an interview with French journalists ahead of his trip to France for a key summit with the European Union.

"The president-elect and I agreed that our meeting should be held without any sort of delay," he said in televised comments. "The United States and the Russian Federation need this."

Since warning that Russia planned to base short-range missiles in Kaliningrad in response to U.S, plans for missile defense units in Poland and the Czech Republic, Medvedev and other Kremlin officials have backed off slightly.

In the interview, Medvedev against suggested that if Washington halts its plans, Moscow would do the same.

After France, the Russian leader heads to Washington for a summit of world leaders who plan to discuss the global economic crisis.

Medvedev said a new "Bretton Woods" system of global financial regulation was needed and he said it should consider all countries' interests, not just those of the "most powerful or the biggest."

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Russia has repeatedly called for a sweeping overhaul of financial institutions including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Bretton Woods was the 1944 conference in the U.S. state of New Hampshire that established international monetary protocols governing trade, banking and other financial relations among nations.

[Associated Press]

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