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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Chairman Xi Jinping, my dear friend, Chinese colleagues,

We are very pleased to receive you today in the Moscow Kremlin.

Your visit to Russia is a key event in bilateral relations this year, because it is a state visit. But the status of this visit is not as important as the opportunity to meet again, to discuss current problems in relations between Russia and China, and international matters.

As for bilateral relations, your visit, as you know, is timed to a major date – the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. The Soviet Union recognised the People’s Republic of China immediately, the day after it was created and proclaimed. Over this period, many events have happened, but in the last few years, Russian-Chinese relations have reached, without exaggeration, an unprecedented level, also thanks to your direct involvement. But the most important thing is that this unprecedentedly high level of relations is being applied effectively, so the peoples of Russia and China can cooperate and use their competitive advantages on both sides to promote growth.

You and I set a goal to reach $100 billion in trade last year. Thanks to the efforts of our teams, the governments of both countries, we have exceeded this mark, with mutual trade reaching $108 billion. And it has continued to grow in the first quarter of this year, already exceeding 3.4 percent. All this is the result of our joint work and the result of our teams’ performance, and – I would like to emphasize it once again – to a large extent, it is due to your personal contribution.

Welcome again! We are delighted to see you. I am sure that your visit will give another powerful impetus to the development of our interstate relations.

Thank you.

President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping (retranslated): President Putin, friends,

I feel the same as you do. We are very happy to meet with you once again. I’m pleased to visit Russia once again at your invitation. Though, formally speaking, this is my first state visit to your country, to Russia during my new term of office, but, of course, you and I are not confined to this format. You and I meet all the time at various venues. I would like to once again thank you for taking part in the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, for your major contribution and for your support in successfully holding this forum.

This year marks the 70^th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries. The Soviet Union was the first country to recognise our country, from the first day of establishing a new China. Over these years, Chinese-Russian relations withstood trials, changes in global affairs and changes inside our countries. Step by step, we managed to take our relations to the highest level in their entire history. I would like to say that both of us have passed the test before the peoples of our countries. The 70^th anniversary is an important milestone and a new start.

Against the backdrop of drastic changes that the world has not seen for the past 100 years, the peoples of both countries and the international community are putting high hopes on us.

There are no limits to advancing our relations; we only need to become better and better. We are ready to constantly improve the positive effect of our high-level relations together with you, side by side, to instil in our citizens an even more profound feeling of unity among our peoples and to put forward even more of our joint initiatives.

I hope and I am sure that this visit will certainly make it possible to achieve new and outstanding success.

Thank you for everything that you have done for my current visit and for your cordial reception. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Mr President, dear friend,

I would like to especially thank you for agreeing to take part in the work of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. We will have an opportunity to hear out our colleagues, to speak and to listen to the discussion.

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