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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I am happy to see you.

We will also have a sports programme this evening. But I am happy to have this opportunity to discuss, face to face, our bilateral and international issues. I mean our associations where we work together, and international issues of a broader character.

We meet regularly, yet each of these meetings has significance and is very important to us.

I am very happy to see you. Welcome.

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko: However trite it might sound, thank you for the invitation to step aside from our routine, presidential problems for a while.

I come here every year. There is a piece of land in Belarus next to you, behind the fence. And I try to come here at any opportunity to spend three or four days away from the problems that continue to inundate us. They are the same all over; you also have your fair share of them, though in larger volume.

I am happy to hear what you said. We indeed have matters to discuss, but I would not say that our problems continue to grow. We have some problems that are resolved quickly and some that take longer, but fortunately, there are not many new problems, according to my analysis.

Nevertheless, nobody will resolve these problems if we don’t, and we also have to resolve some issues that are not ours, as often happens. So we have things to talk over, and I would be grateful if you would update me on international relations, your meetings, your impressions and joint actions in the global arena.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

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