Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues,

I am very pleased to have this chance to meet with you on the sidelines of the G20 summit. First of all, I want to thank you for your active participation throughout the summit. Your remarks today were very substantive and helped to formulate the final results of our work.

We understand your concerns about unemployment. You spoke about this today. We all gathered here precisely in order to look for solutions to this problem.

No matter what the current difficulties, Spain is Russia’s longstanding, reliable partner. We have good relations and there is not a single problem in our bilateral ties. 

Our task is to put more attention into investment cooperation and cooperation in the real sector of the economy. I welcome this opportunity to discuss these issues with you today.

Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy (re-translated): Mr President, first of all, let me thank you for the warm welcome our entire delegation has received. I also congratulate you on the G20 summit’s excellent organisation, and as a Spanish citizen I can say that I am leaving here happy with the results of our work and happy with our cooperation.

We discussed economic growth and the importance of creating new jobs. All of this does indeed have an effect on our peoples’ welfare, and sometimes there are different views when it comes to this matter. But what I want to note is the paramount importance of reaching a common understanding on taxation, which is a policy area that concerns everyone.

Spain has been carrying out some major reforms lately, and I am sure that we will soon see the results of these reforms and the measures we have taken.

Mr President, I stress the excellent relations between our countries. I have noted of late a considerable increase in the number of Russians visiting Spain. Their number will soon rise to 1.5 million people a year. These contacts help our peoples to get to know each other much better and promote better relations between our countries.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

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