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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Secretary-General, colleagues,

Allow me to greet all of you.

We met last, I think, a year ago, at the economic forum in St. Petersburg.

Russia is presiding over the Security Council now; I hope the work is constructive and intensive.

You know that we have always advocated and continue supporting the leading and central role of the United Nations in international affairs.

The UN office in our country will celebrate its 70^th anniversary soon. We are ready to continue constructive cooperation.

We believe that the UN is the only universal platform of its kind, and its Charter lays the groundwork for modern international public law. Its role as a universal tool for resolving and preventing crises in international affairs is absolutely unique.

Welcome.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: Your Excellency,Mr President, it is an enormous pleasure to be back in Moscow.

As you rightly said, Russia is now presiding in the Security Council, and I believe that there are two landmark moments during the presidency: first, the presidential declaration on Ukraine and second, the debate on the Middle East that we will have before the end of the month.

Of course, we look at the Russian Federation as a founder of the United Nations and as a permanent member of the Security Council, but I would say that at the present moment we look at the Russian Federation as an indispensable element of the creation of a new multipolar world.

To be entirely frank, these are not easy times for multilateralism and not easy times for the UN. And I think that after the Cold War and after a short period of unipolar world we are still struggling to find a way to have a structured, multipolar world with multilateral governmental institutions that can work. And this is something that worries me a lot and is something in which, I believe, the Russian Federation has a unique role to play.

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