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President Vladimir Putin: Mr. Secretary-General, dear colleagues, let me welcome you in the Moscow Kremlin. We are very glad to have this opportunity to receive the Secretary-General in Moscow. And we regard your visit, Mr. Secretary- General, as one more step towards greater interaction between Russia and the United Nations. You know our attitude towards your Organization. We see it as a key organization in the strengthening of international peace and security. And today it is of special importance. Today, when we see a lot of local conflicts. And two of such conflicts are the most acute — one is the Middle East conflict and the other is the conflict between India and Pakistan. They were at the limelight of yesterday's meeting in Almaty. And your representatives were present there.

Kofi Annan: Mr President, I am extremely happy to be back in Moscow and for us to continue our periodic discussions. And I want to thank you for the very strong support the Russian Federation gives to the United Nations and the cooperation between your country and the Organization. And I appreciate very much your own personal involvement in the conflict resolution, and you have mentioned two of them — the Middle East and India-Pakistan, that we are all working on. And I want to thank you for the efforts you made in Almaty to talk to the two leaders involved — President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee. Of course, I noticed the press were treating you the way they always treat the United Nations. I tell them: the failures are always ours, but the success belongs elsewhere. I was amused to hear them say: President Putin fails to make peace in Almaty. But the actual situation was that the two leaders failed to seize the opportunity offered by the conference and the efforts you and other leaders made to help resolve the conflict.

President Vladimir Putin: Mr. Secretary-General, you know, frankly speaking, we never set a goal to bring them together. And moreover, during consultations with our partners many of them expressed the idea that today it may be premature, because the internal political situation inside both countries develops in such a way, such a meeting could throw out of balance the correlation of political forces in both countries and could be even counterproductive. And some of my Western partners who know the problem deeper did not even recommend me to do that. But it is important that they came to Almaty, that they were sitting at the same table, and the most important thing is that they both signed two documents — Almaty Act and Declaration, which register the principle of the resolution of conflict without use of force. And in my view it is a very serious and good development. And, moreover, during bilateral meetings both leaders gave signals that we cannot interpret other than positively, giving us certain hope. And I am ready to develop on this.

Kofi Annan: And I did not expect them to meet. I agree with you that the fact they came was very important.