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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Madame President, colleagues, allow me to welcome you.

It is a pleasure to see you, to discuss bilateral relations, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in the world at large.

I would like to note that despite global market fluctuations, our economic ties are generally developing well. However, I would like to begin our meeting by expressing my condolences on the death of the former President of the Republic of Korea Kim Young-sam.

President of the Republic of Korea Park Geun-hye (retranslated): Thank you, Mr President.

I would like to begin by expressing my deep condolences in connection with the terrorist act – the crash of the Russian plane that led to the death of a large number of Russian citizens.

As you have said, despite the fluctuations on the global market, we have made rather good economic progress, due to the fact that your new policy in the east together with my new vision of the Eurasian initiative are aimed in the same direction, focusing on the same point. Therefore, we have achieved some good results in the development of our practical cooperation.

I would like to note that last year we achieved record volumes not only in trade, but also in humanitarian contacts, despite the bad atmosphere in foreign economic relations. Therefore, I believe that based on our potential in areas where we have common interests we should more actively identify real cooperation projects that we could implement.

I would like to remind you that last month, in October, a meeting of the intergovernmental commission on economic and scientific cooperation took place in Seoul, where our colleagues agreed on and discussed ways of identifying our projects and enhancing investment and business activity. I believe this was the right thing to do.

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