Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, I want to welcome you to the Kremlin. I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet, get to know each other, and discuss all the issues of importance to our countries today.

Our countries have longstanding ties of partnership, and this can be seen in all the different areas of our cooperation. We see it in our trade ties, which are growing from year to year. Last year, our bilateral trade reached the $1-billion mark, and this year I hope we will reach a figure of $1.5 billion, and this is certainly not the limit of course.

We have a mass of good opportunities for investment cooperation that we can continue to develop. We will talk about all of this, and I hope that many documents bearing witness to the great potential of our bilateral cooperation will be signed in our presence today.

Our cultural and humanitarian cooperation is developing in all different areas, and I am thinking here too of the history that binds together the Russian Federation and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Finally, our countries share close and often the same position on the various issues on the agenda for international dialogue and cooperation, on the most difficult issues our planet faces at this time. Vietnam is currently a member of the [UN] Security Council. We are committed to the farthest-ranging coordination of cooperation on all issues.

Mr President, I am sure that your visit to the Russian Federation will be another step towards strengthening the dialogue between our countries and building up our relations.

Once again I wish you welcome and I give you the floor.

President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet: Esteemed President Medvedev,

I would like to start by saying how grateful I am that you have invited me and my delegation to visit Russia. We have found a very warm and hospitable reception here.

The objective of my visit is to work together with you to help take our relations to a higher level. This is my first visit to Russia as President.

I have visited Moscow many times in the past. Every time I have come to Russia I have always felt the warm feelings and goodwill that the Russian people have for us. These feelings are precious to us and we are now working to develop them.

The Vietnamese people have great admiration, love and respect for the Russian people. This is a heroic people and Russia is a great country.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you, Mr President.

To my regret, I have only once been to Vietnam, but my visit in 2001 made an unforgettable impression. I was there during the first visit of a President of Russia to your country. I think we now have the chance to expand opportunities for these kinds of visits.