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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Ladies and gentlemen, I congratulate you on the start of your work in the Russian Federation.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the fiftieth anniversary of which we will celebrate next year, defines one of the main tasks of embassies as being to encourage friendly relations between countries and develop economic, cultural, and scientific cooperation. You have a busy and I am sure interesting time ahead of you in Moscow. We hope very much that you will do a worthy job of carrying out your lofty missions, representing your countries, and helping to strengthen our bilateral relations for the good of our peoples. 

Russia is actively pursuing its foreign policy, which is a part of my own job too. Indeed, I am leaving for France almost straight after our meeting today, to take part in the trilateral French-Russian-German summit in Deauville. We will discuss European life and how to ensure Europe’s security. I remind you that this is the objective too of the European Security Treaty that I proposed. We hope that this document and the other efforts our country is making in guaranteeing security will meet with a worthy response in the world. 

Guaranteeing security is a relevant issue not just for Europe, of course, but also for the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, and America. We will therefore continue our efforts in all of these directions.

These efforts to advance a unifying international agenda and enhance the global security institutions fit entirely with Russia’s goals to modernise our country and economy and develop our political system.

Breaking down old stereotypes and freeing ourselves from old thinking are also part of this approach. I think that we made progress in this of late. This approach is reflected in the development of our ties with the United States of America, the turn for the better in Russian-Polish relations, the signing of a treaty between Russia and Norway on maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea, and a number of other foreign policy events in which our country has taken part.

The democratic foundation of modern international relations is another important aspect. I spoke about this recently at the Global Policy Forum in Yaroslavl, where I outlined my vision of the democratic standards that should be a part not only of domestic political life but also foreign relations.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to say a few words now about our relations with the countries that you represent.

Our country wants to rebuild dialogue and promote full-scale cooperation with Iraq. I am sure that our political, economic, and humanitarian cooperation will include new projects and expand into new areas. We support strengthening Iraq’s unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and its progress as a democratic and flourishing country. 

Here in Russia, we have always had great sympathy for the Cambodian people, and we wish them success in carrying our political, social and economic transformation. We will celebrate 55 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries in May next year. We hope that our joint efforts will give impetus to our bilateral relations, including in business and education.

We value the high level of our political and economic partnership with Chile. The high-level agreements we have concluded have enabled us to begin coordinated efforts to build up mutually advantageous ties in a wide variety of areas, including the oil and gas sector, mining industry, metals sector, transport, and high technology.

We have friendly ties with the Republic of Senegal. We highly value our work together in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. We welcome the development of our bilateral cooperation in promising areas such as nuclear energy, fishing, and exploration of natural resources.

We seek to expand Russian-Kenyan ties and intensify our cooperation in all areas, including cooperation in education and professional training for specialists. We have good opportunities in other areas too, in tourism, for example, in which we are currently drawing up an intergovernmental agreement.

Our business partnership with Turkey is advancing fast and has already reached the strategic level. I am sure that the big projects that we plan now, such as the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, the Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and our joint involvement in the South Stream project will considerably broaden the horizons of our cooperation and strengthen Europe’s energy security in general.

Russia will continue to work towards achieving lasting peace in Afghanistan and rebuilding it as a sovereign, independent and self-sufficient country. We hope to take further our cooperation with the Afghan leadership, including through the Russia-NATO Council, and the OSCE, and to build up more active and closer efforts to combat the spread of terrorism and drug trafficking. Naturally, we are ready to look for promising opportunities for economic cooperation with Afghanistan.

Our relations with Denmark are an example of good-neighbourly ties in Europe. I was in Copenhagen recently and have warm recollections of this visit. The Partnership for Modernisation declaration that we signed on that occasion will, I hope, provide a new format for cooperation – that of an alliance for innovative advancement. 

We value the high level of mutual understanding and trust that we have with Nicaragua, which is one of our key partners in Central America, and we want to continue building up our political dialogue, coordinating our work on the international stage, and advancing economic and humanitarian projects too, of course.

We are happy with the way our relations with Namibia are developing. Our task now is to implement the cooperation agreements signed during my visit to Windhoek last summer, and President Pohamba’s visit to Moscow in May. This is particularly true of the energy sector, transport, education and science. 

We place great importance on strengthening our wide-ranging relations with Canada, including by working together more actively in the Arctic and in the North in general. We welcome the growing ties our regions are establishing between themselves, the joint projects in areas such as energy efficiency and alternative energy resources, and our foreign policy coordination work. 

We seek all-round development of our relations with Israel and see good prospects for trade and economic cooperation. Without question we will continue to support dialogue on regional and international issues in the aim of reaching a fair, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East. Our countries have achieved a high level of cooperation in efforts to prevent attempts to falsify the events and results of World War II.

We aim to expand our cooperation with the Republic of Gambia, and this year we are celebrating 45 years since the establishment of our diplomatic relations.

Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely wish you success in the work that lies ahead of you in Russia. I am sure that this work will strengthen the friendship and trust between our countries and help to develop international cooperation in all areas.

Thank you for your attention.