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The talks began one-on-one, following which international consultations continued in an expanded format with the members of the two countries’ delegations.

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Beginning of the Russian-Bolivian talks in the restricted format

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, Russia. This is your first visit to Russia as the head of state, and we are delighted to have you here.

I have no doubt that you will make a substantial contribution to the work of our forum, considering that you have a degree in economics and previously held the posts of minister of the economy and minister of finance. I hope you will find the discussions that are being held at the forum today and those that are scheduled for tomorrow interesting.

Turning to the bilateral relations between Russia and Bolivia, they are built on a solid foundation of respect for each other’s interests. Although our mutual trade is relatively small in monetary terms, there has been positive growth: last year, it increased by over 2 percent, or 2.5 percent, if I am not mistaken.

There are several interesting spheres of cooperation, including high technology. Rosatom is implementing a good programme and is building a nuclear research and technology centre in El Alto. One of the completed projects is a radiopharmacology complex, the largest in Latin America, which is already supplying medicines to Bolivian clinics.

There are also other interesting ideas and goals which we coordinated with the previous Bolivian authorities as our key priorities. I understand that you are continuing with these priorities, and we are pleased about it.

So, Mr President, welcome to Russia.

President of Bolivia Luis Alberto Arce Catacora (retranslated): Thank you very much.

Mr President,

Thank you for inviting us to this important forum. We are grateful for this opportunity and will actively contribute to its work. We will share information about the Bolivian experience. We have a unique economic model, which we have been implementing since 2006, and we will share this experience at the forum. We are also ready to provide assistance to all participants and share our country’s experience.

We appreciate the support provided by the friendly Russian Government, which has implemented several projects such as the Nuclear Research and Technology Centre, which you mentioned. We are looking forward to working jointly with a Russian company on a lithium project in Bolivia. We will also work in other areas of cooperation between Russia and Bolivia.

We have a busy agenda, which we will discuss. Thank you for inviting us. I express my gratitude on behalf of the Bolivian people, who are closely following these developments.

We are happy to be here, in your hometown, and glad to be able to visit it, to share our experience, to talk about our projects and dreams, and explore the possibilities of implementing them together with you.

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