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The two leaders addressed international and regional issues, including cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the UN, and the situation in Afghanistan.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the  Background information BRICS BRICS summit.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, I greet you most warmly.

It is a great pleasure to see you once more. I was in India not so long ago on a visit that was very useful and productive, and, as always, very friendly.

Today we are meeting for the BRIC – now enlarged to become BRICS – summit, and this gives us the chance to not only assess the current international economic situation and review international events, but also examine our bilateral relations, which makes me very happy. We can discuss economic matters, our cooperation on humanitarian projects and our ties in other areas too. It is a very good thing that we are opening the year with this meeting.

Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh: Mr President,

India and Russia have a unique strategic and global partnership. We completed the decade of strategic cooperation, and I dare say it is an occasion to celebrate, because in this decade our relations have gained in strength, in durability, in depth and width. And a great deal has been due to the activities, Mr President, you have taken in the development of these relations. And I thank you and Mr Putin from the core of my heart, for the strong support that you have given to intensification of our cooperation in almost every conceivable activity that we could think of. And I do hope, the next decade will be still more productive in terms of promoting cooperation between our two countries.

And BRICS is also an institution which has got its institutional shape because of the fiery zeal of Russian leadership. The first time that BRICS met as a group was in Russia, and last year we met in Brazil, and now we are meeting in China, and in these three years the world has changed enormously. The world economy has been faced with numerous challenges and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that partnership of countries like Russia, China, India, Brazil and now South Africa can strengthen the forces of peace, progress and stability.

So once again I express my great sense of joy and glee in your company. Your visit in December was a landmark and whenever I meet you I know back there in Russia we have a top leadership which is exceedingly supportive of our ambitions.