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The King of the Netherlands is visiting Russia to participate in the events marking the closing of the reciprocal Russia-Netherlands Year.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Welcome to Russia.

King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands (translated from Russian): Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: I am very pleased that we have such a royal resource for building our relations.

Despite some rough spots in the diplomatic service, the King was able to visit. And I am sure that today we will have plenty to talk about, in the light of the close nature of our relations.

Thank you very much for taking part in activities to celebrate the anniversary of our relations.

King Willem-Alexander: Mr President, thank you very much for being here with me and my wife in honour of the 400th anniversary of our relations.

I am very pleased that we are able to listen to the concert by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in the Conservatory; it has not performed here in over ten years.

This is just one of the programme highlights of our reciprocal year. I am sure that there will be other events too. And I am confident that we will resolve everything in the spirit of friendship.

Vladimir Putin: I have no doubt about that.

Regarding the orchestra, we are particularly pleased that it is conducted by someone we know well, Mr [Mariss] Jansons [formerly associated with the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra].

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