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The meeting took place after the opening ceremony of the 2017 World Judo Championships. The Russian President watched the competitions together with the Prime Minister of Hungary and President of Mongolia.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, I am very glad to have the opportunity to meet you. We know you both as a politician and a good athlete. I would like to congratulate you on the excellent performance of Mongolian judokas at the world championships here.

As for bilateral relations, we will have an opportunity to speak about them in more detail in Vladivostok, where I know you are planning to attend the forum as well. But it is already clear that the trend in trade is good. While last year it fell by 20 percent, in the first half year of 2017 it grew by over 34 percent.

Work is being done on the political track, as well as in the economic and cultural areas. Our traditional Russian-Mongolian ventures are working hard and shipments are up. So, we will have plenty to discuss in depth in Vladivostok.

President of Mongolia Khaltmaagiin Battulga (retranslated): Good evening to you once again.

I am very pleased to meet with you at such a remarkable event as the World Judo Championships. It is great that we are meeting at this event because it is something we are both interested in and fond of. I believe it will serve us well in the future. Naturally, we are planning to have a working meeting in Vladivostok in the near future.

The presidential election in Mongolia was less than two months ago. Considering modern realities, I am planning to further expand relations with our northern neighbour.

You have just said that trade has grown. This trade owes something to cross-border regions and I think it is important to pay attention to the relations between border regions because we have a common border of over 4,000 km.

Naturally, we are primarily interested in investment. Our priority is railways. We have a joint venture, Ulan Bator Railways, with fifty-fifty participation.

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