Official website of the President of Russia

Документ   /

***

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: We have discussed the G8 summit progress and the upcoming G20 summit, as well as the current state of our bilateral relations.

We have come to the conclusion that they require a kind of adjustment. We agreed that our foreign ministers will be in touch and that our entire agenda should be covered through our personal consultations and consultations between our governments.

We agree that our bilateral economic and other relations require top-level attention and we are determined to make such relations more efficient and comprehensive.

I hope that following this summit in Canada we will closely cooperate on a variety of issues in addition to the rather close cooperation we already maintain in addressing some foreign policy affairs, which is very beneficial.

I would certainly like to wish Mr Prime Minister success in the hard labours ahead of him, as well as patience for participating in various international summits which will be many.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland David Cameron: Thank you, Mr President. It has been a great pleasure to have this face-to-face meeting. We’ve spoken on the telephone and it’s been good to have this meeting. As you say, I think there’s a real opportunity to put the bilateral relationship onto a new footing, to try to make a stronger start and to work through the issues where we have agreement and those where we still have things to work through.

But I think there’s lots of common ground on the economic issues we face and the challenges of dealing with deficits, getting our economies growing, and more economic cooperation between our two countries.

We had a very good discussion about the Middle East peace process, about the challenges of Iran, about the challenges of Islamic radicalisation – some of the things that our countries face together. So I think that it’s very good to have this meeting, to have a stronger bilateral relationship. As we agreed, I said that I would follow your Twitter feed, now that you’re doing it, but I think also we’ll talk on the telephone, and our foreign ministers are going to meet to work up a fuller agenda. I think that’s very worthwhile.

I know you’ve given me good advice about being patient at international meetings, but I think it seems we are approaching the G8 and the G20 in a similar way, with a similar idea of how these meetings can work in the future. So it’s been a good discussion and a good meeting, so thank you.