USA/Russland — Obama Commemorates Elbe River Meeting

WASHINGTON, April 25, 2010 — Pres­i­dent Barack Oba­ma and Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Dmit­ry Medvedev issued a joint state­ment today to com­mem­o­rate the 65th anniver­sary of the meet­ing of Sovi­et and Amer­i­can troops at Elbe Riv­er dur­ing World War II. Here is the state­ment in its entire­ty:

April 25, 2010 marks the 65th anniver­sary of the leg­endary meet­ing of Sovi­et and Amer­i­can troops at the Elbe Riv­er, which became a strik­ing sym­bol of the broth­er­hood-in-arms between our nations dur­ing World War II. 

We pay trib­ute to the courage of those who fought togeth­er to lib­er­ate Europe from fas­cism. Their hero­ic feat will for­ev­er remain in the grate­ful mem­o­ry of mankind. 

The atmos­phere of mutu­al trust and shared com­mit­ment to vic­to­ry, which accom­pa­nied the his­toric hand­shake at the Elbe, is espe­cial­ly called for today when Rus­sia and the Unit­ed States are build­ing a part­ner­ship for the sake of a sta­ble and pros­per­ous world. We are con­vinced that, act­ing in the “spir­it of the Elbe” on an equi­table and con­struc­tive basis, we can suc­cess­ful­ly tack­le any tasks fac­ing our nations and effec­tive­ly deal with the chal­lenges of the new millennium. 

Source:
U.S. Depart­ment of Defense
Office of the Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of Defense (Pub­lic Affairs)