Russian and U.S. presidents' remarks at nuclear treaty ceremony

(CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a landmark nuclear reduction treaty in Moscow on Friday that will take from deployment roughly two-thirds of both the U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces over 10 years. The leaders also signed a joint declaration pledging cooperation on missile defense at the ceremony in the Kremlin's gold-trimmed Andreyevsky Hall. The following is a transcript of their remarks at the signing ceremony.

U.S. President George W. Bush's remarks:

President Putin, thank you very much. Laura and I are so grateful for your hospitality and your friendship. It's an historic and hopeful day for Russia and America. It's an historic day for the world as well. President Putin and I today ended a long chapter of confrontation and opened up an entirely new relationship between our countries.

Mr. President, I appreciate your leadership. I appreciate your vision. I appreciate the fact that we have now laid the foundation for not only our governments but future governments to work in a spirit of cooperation and a spirit of trust. That's good. It's good for the people of Russia; it's good for the people of the United States. President Putin and I have signed a treaty that will substantially reduce our strategic nuclear warhead arsenals to the range of 1,700 to 2,000, the lowest level in decades.

This treaty liquidates the Cold War legacy of nuclear hostility between our countries. We have also signed a joint declaration of a new strategic relationship that charts the course to a greater security, political and economic cooperation between Russia and the United States. Our nations will continue to cooperate closely in the war against global terror. I understand full well that the people of Russia have suffered at the hands of terrorists and so have we.

And I want to thank President Putin for his understanding of the nature of the new war we face together and his willingness to be determined and steadfast and patient as we pursue this war together. President Putin and I agree also that the greatest danger in this war is the prospect of terrorists acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Our nations must spare no effort at preventing all forms of proliferation, and we discussed Iran in this context today. We will work closely with each other on this very important issue.

Our nations also agree on the importance of a new NATO- Russia council that will be launched in a few days in Rome. And Mr. President, this council is also a tribute to your leadership and your vision. For decades, Russia and NATO were adversaries; those days are gone, and that's good. And that's good for the Russian people, it's good for the people of my country, it's good for the people of Europe and it's good for the people of the world.

Russia and the United States are also determined to work closely on important regional challenges. Together, we will work to rebuild Afghanistan; together, we will work to improve security in Georgia. We will work to help end fighting and achieve a political settlement in Chechnya. Russia and the United States are committed to economic cooperation. We have launched a major, new energy partnership. Private firms will take the lead in developing and transforming the vast energy reserves of Russia and the Caspian world to markets through multiple pipelines such as the Caspian pipelines consortium in Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, and I want to thank you for the cooperation and the willingness to work together on energy and energy security.

Russia is building its market economy, opening new opportunities for both our countries. I'm impressed by the level of entrepreneurial growth here in Russia. It's a significant achievement. It's again, it's a testimony to the leadership of Vladimir Putin. In a while, we're going to meet with Russian and American business leaders to discuss how we can continue fostering good relations and fostering opportunity. We want Russia to be a part of the world economy. We look forward to one day welcoming Russia as a member of the World Trade Organization.

President Putin and I also agree that we'll work to resolve disputed areas of trading, such as poultry or steel, in a spirit of mutual respect and trust. America welcomes the dramatic improvement in freedoms in Russia since Soviet days, including the new freedoms of Russia's Jewish community. In recognition of these freedoms, I am determined to work with Congress to remove Russia from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

It is time our Congress responded to my request and President Putin's desire that the Jackson-Vanik amendment be removed pertaining to Russia. I also discussed with President Putin the important role of free press and building a working democracy, and today, we will meet with media entrepreneurs from both countries. It's an issue we discussed before. The president said it makes sense to have a forum where media entrepreneurs can meet and visit, and it's going to take place today. Mr. President, I appreciate that. I am pleased with our relationship.

I am confident that, by working together, we make the world more peaceful. I'm confident that, by working together, we can win the first war of the 21st century, and that is the war of cold-blooded killers -- against cold- blooded killers who want to harm nations such as America and Russia. And I'm confident that when we work together in a spirit of cooperation on all fronts; both our peoples will benefit. Mr. President, thank you for your hospitality.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's remarks (through translator):

Distinguished Americans, colleagues, the distinguished Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. We've just accomplished the initial part of our talks with the U.S. President George Bush. Our distinguished colleagues have visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, but now we can name the major result of our talks. First of all, the logical development and practical implementation as seen by our agreements reached in Crawford last year -- I mean, the signature of the treaty between Russia on strategic defensive reductions and, first of all, this document.

We need close contacts through all agents of our services, including special services. Here, we have a very positive experience we have accrued over the past years, and we see it today, we feel it today during the negotiations. The bilateral working group on Afghanistan has demonstrated its efficiency, and we, with Mr. President, would like to transform it on a group to combat terrorism, especially chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism. Russia and the United States are oriented to build new relations in economic activity.

It's the statement of our countries to reduce our nuclear arsenals and join to work for nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

It's the decision of two states which are particularly responsible for international security and strategic stability. We are on the level of adopting the declaration on a new strategic relationship which determines the basic directions in security and international policy. It will have a positive impact for economic cooperation and development of our relations between the institutions of public -- general public.

And together with Mr. President, we discussed especially this aspect of civil society and between the people of our countries. The declaration formulates the principles of our dialogue and anti-missile dialogue; that is, the transparency and the openness and exclusion of potential threats. We confirmed the general agreement on offensive and defensive systems in all their aspects.

A separate issue: The mechanism of NATO-Russia cooperation within the framework of 20, it presumes a new level of joint responsibility and confidence between all its participants. I would like to stress especially that that is the international novelty, and it happened because of the strengthening of Russian-American relations, including enjoined confrontation with international terrorists -- struggling with international terrorism.

The Russians work together with the American people since September the (11th) and we're grateful for sincere feelings of compassion (inaudible) by President Bush on behalf of American people because of those recent events in Kaspisk. The memory of terrorism victims and the responsibility for the security of our people means a joint struggle against this evil as well as the struggle against extremism. The spirit of our cooperation will mean fruitful results even today. That's why the agenda has very concrete issues of interaction against terrorism on the basis of unique standards against any manifestation of terrorism and extremism. We need close contacts through all agents of our services, including special services.

Here, we have a very positive experience we have accrued over the past years, and we see it today, we feel it today during the negotiations. The bilateral working group on Afghanistan has demonstrated its efficiency, and we, with Mr. President, would like to transform it on a group to combat terrorism, especially chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism. Russia and the United States are oriented to build new relations in economic activity.

Our business mentality is much alike; that's the -- their qualities and their joint work is based on free trade and supporting the initiatives. That's why our task is to open new opportunities for the business community. We need to avoid obstacles of the past. Here, we mean not only the market status of the Russian economy -- and I'm grateful to Mr. President that he has given a very positive signal during our talks. And it -- don't also mean the -- such things as the Jackson-Vanik amendment, we have to remove administrative obstacles which includes both countries to cooperate, especially in the high-tech sphere which determine the economy of the 21st century; that is the aeronautics, telecommunications, science and technologies, new sources of energy.

I would like to focus on energy, especially nuclear energy. We paid much attention to it today. And much performance of our cooperation will be a good element for the global economy on the whole. I would like to stress in conclusion that, of course, not all ideas, not all initiatives, are on paper and in the form of official documents, but a serious move forward in all these issues is quite evident for us. Today, we are together, counteract to global threat and challenges and we are going to form stable world order that is within the interest of our peoples and our countries, and I think it's in the interest of all the civilized human society.

Thank you.