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The Russian and South Korean Presidents met on the sidelines of the Global Policy Forum The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency.

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President OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr President, first of all, I want to thank you sincerely for accepting my invitation to take part in this political forum. I think this is a sign of our good relations and a symbol of the full-fledged good-neighbourly ties that are developing between Russia and the Republic of Korea. 

Today we have a chance to exchange information on developing our contacts, the work we have underway in economic and other areas, and the preparations for the G20 summit. I recently received your very interesting letter on this subject, and also wanted to share my views with you.

Of course, there are also international and regional security issues on our agenda, and I think we will spend some time discussing these subjects today too.

Once again, I welcome you to Yaroslavl, which is currently celebrating its 1,000^th anniversary.

President OF THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA LEE MYUNG-BAK (retranslated): Mr President, thank you very much for your invitation. After you invited me to attend this forum when we spoke by telephone, I then received your letter inviting me to take part in the Yaroslavl forum, and I decided to accept this invitation.

I learned today that Yaroslavl is celebrating 1,000 years since its founding. Earlier today, before our meeting, I visited the Yaroslavl Kremlin, and it gave me a special feeling to be visiting the city right as it celebrates its 1,000^th anniversary. It is a great honour to be here.

This year, we are celebrating the 20^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Korea. Our diplomatic relations are only recent in history, but we have nonetheless succeeded in this short time in building up all-round ties, and not just political and economic cooperation, but cooperation on the international stage too. I am therefore optimistic about our bilateral relations’ future development.

Mr Medvedev, whenever we meet we discuss a broad range of issues, starting with bilateral relations and finishing with international issues, and I come away with the feeling every time that we do indeed share the same views on many different questions.

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