Joint Statement on the U.S.-Russian Consultations on the Bilateral Agreement Regarding Cooperation in Adoption of Children

September 28, 2012

Officials of the United States and the Russian Federation met in Moscow September 26-27, 2012 to discuss the implementation of the bilateral Agreement Regarding Cooperation in Adoption of Children. The Agreement was signed in 2011 by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and in July 2012 it was approved by the Russian Federal Assembly.

The United States and the Russian Federation confirm their mutual preparedness to continue cooperation on an intercountry adoption process that provides better safeguards for adoptive children taking into account the interests and obligations of the adoptive parents.  Our goal is to bring the Agreement into force in a responsible way that gives parents, adoption service providers, and all other key stakeholders the necessary information in advance.

U.S. and Russian technical experts discussed a number of issues relating to implementing the Agreement and expect to bring the Agreement into force on November 1, 2012.  Additional information will be publicly available shortly from the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the U.S. Department of State, which are the executive bodies for this agreement.