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Viktor Yanukovych is in Russia on a working visit at the invitation of Dmitry Medvedev.

The meeting at the Zavidovo country residence began in a one on one format. Later Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin joined the talks.

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Beginning of the meeting with President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Yanukovych, welcome to the Moscow Region.

Today is a special day for Russia. We have just held a party congress, where we outlined the party’s approach and identified key policy makers for future campaigns. This is very important for Russia, but given that we are friends and communicate on a regular basis and make decisions together, it probably also has special significance for Ukraine.

Today we have an opportunity to discuss informally the most pressing aspects of Russian-Ukrainian cooperation, to review the plan for the future, including the Business Forum and the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission, which must certainly be held, but I believe it must have a specific agenda.

We should also address the most complicated matters, including energy cooperation and border issues, and to review some items of the action plan that we approved some time ago.

Once again, welcome to Zavidovo. We have held meetings here before and I think it has an atmosphere conducive to the most difficult discussions, which took place here on a number of occasions, also with your patisipation.

Welcome.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych: Thank you, Mr Medvedev.

First of all, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to meet and for your hospitality. This meeting is being held in a place that has historical significance, which is symbolic because as a rule it has been the venue for meetings between allies. I appreciate that.

We have a great deal to discuss, as there are many outstanding issues that we must address. I want to say that as always before our meetings, I went through the items on our agenda to see what still needs our attention, which of these matters can be dealt with quickly as they have been prepared by our agencies and governments. It would probably make sense not to delay the meeting of the Interstate Commission too much and it would be best if we make the decision before the regional economic forum, which will take place in Donetsk, and to hold a meeting of the Interstate Commission sometime in the autumn, as we had agreed.

I will not deny that there is some concern about our energy issues, but I am confident that given everything we have achieved in the past one and a half years ­­– and we have achieved a great deal: we were able to stabilise economic and trade cooperation and many other issues – I am confident that here too we will be able to approach the situation constructively. Therefore, I am pleased to say once again that I accepted your invitation to be here on this symbolic day for Russia and Ukraine as well, as you rightly said. Thank you.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you.

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