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Vladimir Putin: Ms Foreign Minister, colleagues,

This year will mark the 20^th anniversary since the treaty of friendship was signed between Russia and the Italian Republic. We are very pleased that our relations are developing in accordance with the spirit and the letter of this document: this is true of our political, economic and humanitarian contacts.

Italy will chair the European Union for the next six months and we very much hope that this will serve as a reason to extend the level and quality of the relations we developed between our nations to the entire European Union.

Welcome.

Federica Mogherini (retranslated): Thank you, Mr President.

As far as I know, the very position of the President of the Russian Federation does not stipulate meeting with the Foreign Minister, so I am particularly grateful that you found the opportunity to meet with me, including as a representative from the nation that will chair the European Union for the next six months.

I also want to transmit to you greetings from President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi, with whom as we know you spoke on the phone. We greet you and hope to see you among the participants in the ASEM (Asia-Europe) forum in Milan in October.

As you know, the current Cabinet is quite young. This is a Cabinet that received an ample mandate from Italian voters and will use that trust to carry out deep reforms in the nation and activate work in the Council of Europe.

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