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President Vladimir Putin: Dear Mr Federal Chancellor, dear colleagues,

Allow me once again to wish you a warm welcome to the Kremlin.

It is very pleasing for us that all our agreements are fulfilled. We agreed to hold this meeting as an intermediary one, as a meeting which will assist preparation for widened consultations between our governments in Hamburg in September this year. I think that today’s discussion with representatives of Russia and German business will indeed be a good preparation for this major event in Hamburg.

But today I can already say that firstly, Germany remains our major trade and economic partner, and the biggest investor on our market. I think that it will be good news for business circles that our business people have prepared a statement on expansion of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Federal Republic of Germany in the energy sphere. This is a very important document, which may be the start of very serious, interesting and many-sided work, and not just Russia and Germany, but all of Europe, are interested in the results.

Gerhard Schroeder: Thank you very much, Mr President, I thank you for your hospitality. I think that it is right that our meeting is held with the aim of preparing the upcoming intergovernmental consultations. I think that it can indeed be said that economic relations between our countries have a special dynamic. In my opinion, there is no other country in the world where this dynamic can be seen both in mutual trade and in capital investments.

And this dynamic is linked to the fact that you are successfully conducting reforms. In part, they have already been carried out, while others remain to be completed. I think that this reform activity has led to a situation when the trust of the German business world in Russia’s economic and political stability is very high. I always stress this, because there are sometimes discussions that state the opposite. But an objective assessment shows that this mutual trust does exist, and the reason for it is in the political and economic stability of your country as a result of the reforms carried out.

Vladimir Putin: As far as I have heard, unemployment has begun to drop in Germany. And the economy has also started to grow.

Gerhard Schroeder: This is indeed the case. Thank heavens, we are expecting economic growth this year, which may reach 2%. So far, we are expecting growth of 1.5% to 2%. That is to say, things are developing favourably. And this has positive consequences for the labour market. But the unemployment level is still quite high, and naturally there is heated discussion about this in Germany. And reducing the unemployment rate is the central goal of our policies.

Vladimir Putin: I think that our meeting today should also give a good signal to the development of the economy.