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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Your Majesty, friends, let me wish you a warm welcome to Russia. I want to thank you for accepting our invitation.

I recall that we met together here 18 months ago and mapped out some plans for developing our bilateral relations. The economic situation is difficult right now, but we nevertheless continue developing the mechanisms needed to expand our cooperation.

Bahrain is one of our important partners in the Persian Gulf and the entire Middle East region. We are very happy to see our friends here and have this chance to discuss our bilateral relations and examine the situation in the world, particularly in the region, of course.

Welcome!

King of Bahrain Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa (retranslated): Mr President, thank you for this invitation. This is an important and welcome opportunity to discuss and exchange views on strengthening our bilateral relations and matters concerning our common interests, and to discuss matters concerning the Middle East and the entire world.

Regarding the challenges and the economic situation, we perhaps do not have the full picture yet, but cooperation between countries can help us all to overcome the current difficulties.

We therefore welcome the chance to work together with Russia under your leadership, Mr President, and this is the common desire of all countries in our region.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: Your Majesty, we had hoped to go skiing together, but it seems you have changed your mind. We will go skiing next time.

Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa: Mr President, we know that you love skiing, and we hope that our programme here will not interfere with yours and won’t ruin your plans.

Vladimir Putin: Of course not, on the contrary, it will only make them better.

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