Official website of the President of Russia

Transcripts   /

President Vladimir Putin: Dear Mr President,

First of all, allow me to wish you a very warm welcome to Moscow. I am grateful to you for accepting this invitation. Before beginning our talks today I want to say once again that Egypt is a country with whom we have longstanding and very close relations, and we see Egypt as our privileged partner, especially in Middle East and African affairs. Finally, we also see you personally, dear Mr President, as our close friend who has a special relation with our country, including through the years you spent here in Moscow as a student.

Hosni Mubarak: Thank you very much, Mr President.

I am very pleased to meet here with you. Our countries do indeed share longstanding and strong ties and I always have an interest in and always strive to build up even stronger relations with your country. Our relations really do go back a long way, starting in the 1950s during the revolution in Egypt, during the time of President Gamal Abdel Nasser, and I place great value on these relations that continue to develop today.

Russia has provided us with great assistance and has helped us immensely with resolving various problems at different stages in our history. Russia has been of help and support by supplying us with arms and helping us achieve our economic objectives. Many industrial facilities in Egypt were built with the help of the Russian state and have now become symbols of our cooperation. They include the steelworks, the Aswan Dam, and many other sites. So I am always interested in maintaining very close relations with Russia and ensuring that our cooperation develops its full potential. I am therefore doubly happy to be here today and to meet with President Putin. And of course I very much want to see our cooperation with the Russian Federation grow and intensify. I am certain that the President and I will discuss this today.