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Taking part in the meeting from the Russian side were Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister and co-chair of the Russian-Qatari Joint Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation Alexander Novak, Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Rosneft CEO and Chairman of the Management Board Igor Sechin.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues, friends,

I would like to warmly welcome you to Moscow.

Before we begin our meeting, I would like to ask you to convey our best regards and wishes to His Highness the Emir of Qatar [Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani].

I have a warm recollection of all our meetings with him, which were always held at the top level, which pointed to our special relations and our resolve to continue to develop them in very many areas.

Several days ago, we held the annual St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which was attended, as usual, by a very high-level Qatari delegation. I would like to thank you for that, since you are the head of government and, therefore, control and guide your country’s business initiatives one way or another.

At present, our mutual trade is relatively modest in absolute terms, but we can see that it has a considerable untapped growth potential. We hope that our intergovernmental commission will formulate effective proposals to unleash it. Its Russian co-chair is Deputy Prime Minister Novak, who is attending this meeting. He is familiar with all our plans and endeavours, and I hope that all of them will be implemented.

The Russian Direct Investment Fund is cooperating productively with Qatar, or more precisely, with the Qatar Investment Authority. We can see substantial progress in that area, which is gratifying.

It is also gratifying that you have come to Russia.

Welcome.

Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani (retranslated): Mr President,

First of all, I would like to thank you for your hospitality and warm welcome. His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has asked me to convey his best regards and to assure you of our resolve to maintain our friendly ties.

Today, I have brought you a message from His Highness the Emir of Qatar. It has to do with our further efforts to build up bilateral cooperation and coordination.

Our countries are linked by friendly ties, long-standing friendly ties. We have common interests on a broad range of issues, especially in energy, energy markets and food security. We are also implementing joint economic projects.

I had an opportunity to hold substantive talks with my colleague, the Foreign Minister [Sergei Lavrov], and to discuss political issues and several regional issues.

Thank you very much for taking the time to hold this meeting. Thank you very much.

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