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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, I am very happy to meet you in person.

We have already talked several times over the phone. We have an opportunity to meet here, on the sidelines of BRICS summit, to talk about our cooperation.

Our countries have always shared a special relationship and we in Russia have always had particularly warm feelings toward the Egyptian people.

This year marks seventy years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our nations. In spite of various problems in the global economy, our trade is growing and in the last two years it grew by 70%.

We have many promising areas for cooperation. I am very happy for the opportunity to meet you, make your acquaintance and discuss all these areas.

President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi (retranslated): Mr President, I am very pleased to have this meeting with you today.

Just like you, I have awaited the opportunity to make your acquaintance in person, to discuss the relations of strategic partnership that have tied our countries for 70 years, and these relations have always been warm. I would like for our relations to keep their dynamic momentum in the present.

I am referring to a wide variety of areas for cooperation. These include political cooperation, the coordination of our positions regarding regional and global issues. Naturally, they also include science and technology cooperation between our states, cooperation in developing and transferring technologies, using the Russian Federation’s wealth of experience in this area.

Of course, this applies to a wide range of areas in economic cooperation. These include manufacturing, mutual trade and energy. And I would like to open a new page in our relations as far as the gas sector is concerned, I mean Egyptian gas supplies to Russia.

Naturally, there are also many other promising areas for cooperation, which I discussed with Mr Lavrov when he visited Cairo. I’m sure that he reported to you on that visit.

We consider our meeting with you today a kind of prelude to my visit to the Russian Federation, which I would very much like to make in the near future.

Vladimir Putin: Mr President, you have my invitation. We will find a date for your visit through our foreign ministries.

I will be happy to meet with you at a time that is convenient for you.

Mohamed Morsi: I will also be very happy to make that visit and I hope that we will soon agree on the dates for that trip.

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