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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Madam Vice President,

I am delighted to welcome you to Russia.

We have long-standing, very good, friendly relations with your country, and you personally have made a very substantial contribution to the development of Russia-Laos relations. We know you as our good and reliable friend. You have visited our country several times and, during your tenure as president of the National Assembly, made a significant contribution to the development of bilateral parliamentary relations.

I ask you to convey our warmest wishes and greetings to the President of Laos. We hope to see him in Russia – I believe we are planning an event in October.

Our relations are developing in many areas. Financial settlements are among the issues of concern; we will talk about this now and consider all the available options to solve this matter.

We are developing humanitarian ties as well. Young people from Laos are studying at our universities, including here in the Russian Far East, where your medical specialists are undergoing training. Defence agencies of our countries maintain contacts as well. I am confident that all these efforts have good prospects for further development.

I would like to thank you for making the decision to come to the Eastern Economic Forum, an efficient platform that serves to establish contacts with numerous partners in this region of the world and hold relevant meetings and negotiations with your Russian colleagues.

Welcome!

Vice President of the Lao People's Democratic Republic Pany Yathotou (retranslated): Mr Putin,

Thank you very much for the invitation to the Eastern Economic Forum. I am very grateful for your invitation and for the opportunity for our delegation to meet with you today.

We highly appreciate our meeting today. It is a good sign of the development of our joint cooperation in various areas. I would like to express my gratitude for the high assessments and warm words regarding the cooperation between our countries over the past period.

I will certainly convey your greetings to President Thongloun Sisoulith.

At the same time, I would like to convey our President's gratitude to you for your invitation to participate as a special guest at this forum, but due to the previously agreed state visit of our President to Cuba to attend the G77 Summit, Comrade Thongloun Sisoulith was unable to attend the event in person.

I am following with excitement the development of the situation in Russia. I would like to take this opportunity to say that under your leadership, despite all the difficulties and challenges from the outside, as well as economic sanctions and the hostile policy of the United States and its Western allies, Russia has been able to maintain internal political and social stability, the Russian economy continues to develop, and Moscow's role and influence in the world and the region in the process of forming a multipolar world order is constantly growing.

At this stage, the ruling party of Laos, our government and people are focused on implementing the decisions adopted at the 11^th Congress of our party, the 9^th Five-Year Social Development Plan, as well as the two priority national programmes.

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