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The meeting took place ahead of the  Background information Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit. The President of Pakistan is participating in the SCO summit as an observer.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, I am very happy to have this chance to meet once again.

President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari (translated from Russian): It is a great pleasure for me too to meet with you.

Dmitry Medvedev: We have a good reason to meet: we meet regularly to discuss regional problems, and I hope that now too we will have the opportunity to discuss regional issues and talk about our bilateral relations. We have been in regular contact with each other in general of late, and I think this is very useful for our bilateral relations.

As for the question of our region’s security, this is an ongoing and very important issue.

I think it is very important that Pakistan is represented by its president at this SOC summit. This gives us the chance to discuss the most complex issues requiring collective decisions.

I hope we will exchange views on what we can do to develop our bilateral dialogue.

Asif Ali Zardari: Thank you very much, Mr President, for giving me this chance to meet with you. Very rarely do I get the opportunity to meet with leaders such as yourself.