Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much, Leonid Danilovich [Kuchma], and above all, thank you for the invitation. You could say that the conversation between the President of Ukraine and myself has not so much already taken place as is only just beginning. We will have more opportunities to discuss the issues we raised during our meeting today, opportunities to go into more detail, today and tomorrow. But we can already say now that we intend to develop and actively build on the potential that our strategic partnership and close cooperation have.

We have made and will continue to make economic cooperation our main focus. Our mutual trade turnover now comes to around $1 billion a month. But both Leonid Danilovich and I firmly believe that Russia and Ukraine can and should raise the level and increase the scale of our economic and trade cooperation.

I would like to emphasise that the signing of the agreement on creating the Single Economic Space has opened up many new opportunities for developing this cooperation.

At the beginning of our discussion today, the President and I looked at some of the specific aspects of our cooperation, and regarding almost every problem, at least in trade and economic matters, what we come up against is what we see as unjustified restrictions imposed either by one side or the other. These restrictions prevent us from actively developing our cooperation as well as we could in a whole number of areas and with regard to various specific goods. I would like to stress that if we manage to fully apply the terms of the agreement on the Single Economic Space, it really will be for the benefit of our countries’ relations and economies.

One of the priority areas for our bilateral relations is the fuel and energy complex, which plays a key part in the economies of both Russia and Ukraine. Indeed, it is of immense importance for all of Europe. This is why we place such significance on the activities of the international consortium for managing and developing Ukraine’s gas transportation system. We want to work on this project in a spirit of cooperation and taking each other’s interests into account.

I would also like to note that the legislative basis for our relations is expanding. Today we extended it further with new agreements – an agreement on developing our cooperation ties, an agreement on regulating supplies of various goods and so on.

Following the signature of the Treaty on Cooperation in the Use of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait a month ago, a much more favourable situation has developed for cooperation between Russia and Ukraine in the use of this marine territory. We discussed this subject today and agreed to intensify our common work in this area.

Of course, one of the main focuses of our talks today was the holding of the Year of Russia in Ukraine and the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the Pereyaslavl Rada. Leonid Danilovich already mentioned this. These dates have opened up new opportunities for humanitarian cooperation between our countries.

Our two countries have common cultural and historic roots. Developing contacts in education, science and culture and organising youth exchanges will definitely enrich the spectrum of our relations.

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In conclusion, I would once more like to thank our Ukrainian friends for their warm welcome and constructive approach to all the different questions we discussed today. The starting signal has been given and I am sure that we will continue our talks in this same spirit today and tomorrow.