Russia and the United States signed November 19 a final bilateral protocol on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) at a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) organization in Hanoi.
"It [the protocol] also creates good conditions for trade with our partners and for mutual trade," Putin said after a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush.
Putin said the period of work on the document had been difficult and long.
"We worked on it for five years and today this process has been successfully concluded. I want to stress that this would have been impossible without goodwill and professionalism and a business-like approach to the highest degree. This would have been impossible without the U.S. president's political will," Putin said.
The U.S. president said the agreement was beneficial for the United States and Russia, adding that a positive step for both countries and the international community as a whole had been made.
The U.S. president said he had also discussed the North Korea and Iran issues with President Putin.
