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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, I am pleased to have this first real meeting with you and make your acquaintance. I hope that this meeting will continue the fine tradition of meetings and partnership relations that bind our two countries together.

Russia and the Netherlands are good partners and we have a large volume of trade cooperation. Looking through the figures for this year I see that the Netherlands is practically our top trade partner in terms of bilateral trade volume.

Prime Minister of The Netherlands Mark Rutte: Ok! Well, that’s good! That’s good news!

Dmitry Medvedev: Of course, there are other things to discuss too. We also have a good cultural and humanitarian partnership and we will talk about this too, and then are regional matters to discuss too, of course. So, we will talk about the situation in all different areas.

Of course, this OSCE summit that has brought us all to Astana is an excellent event and we hope it will produce positive results, despite the fact that most of the European representatives are still rather sleepy, which is only natural, considering that it is still only 7 am in Europe.

Mark Rutte: Yes, that’s true. (Laughter.)

Thank you so much, Mr President, for my having this chance to meet you. Our relationships are excellent. You have visited Holland. The Hermitage is now an official museum also in Amsterdam, which is beautiful. You have opened it yourself with the Queen.

Dmitry Medvedev: I took part in the opening.

Mark Rutte: Exactly. And also the business ties are good. I work with Unilever myself, which is a big company in Russia, but also Shell, of course, is a big company, so the trade relations and also investor relations are very important.

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