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President Vladimir Putin: Dear Mr Vice President, Allow me once again to wish you a warm welcome to Moscow. Yesterday I spoke with President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva on the telephone and today I would like to ask you to pass on my very best wishes when you see him. Good relations have developed on the personal level between the President and myself, and good relations are also developing between our countries, Russia and Brazil. We hope that your visit, Mr Vice President, and the work of the High-Level Commission – essentially an intergovernmental commission – will give a further boost to developing our relations. Our political dialogue has become broader and more substantial over recent years and the quality of our relations is improving. Brazil is very much emerging today as one of Russia’s main partners in South America. Our trade and economic ties are also growing and trade between our countries has now passed the $2 billion-mark. We are satisfied overall with the rate at which trade turnover is growing, though Russia’s trade deficit continues to rise. I hope that you will also discuss this issue today with the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Fradkov. There are many areas in which we can work together. High technology sectors, especially the peaceful exploration of space, are a clear area in which we can develop our cooperation.

As far as I know, you visited one of our aircraft makers, the Sukhoi firm, yesterday. I would be interested to hear your impressions of this visit. I hope that this will give us a good base on which to develop military-technical cooperation between our two countries. For our part, we are preparing for our visit to Brazil. Our ministries, the Foreign Ministry and other agencies are preparing documents for signature at high level. I have great expectations from this visit.

Vice President Jose Alencar: For Brazil’s part I can say that we also have great expectations from your forthcoming visit as it will be the first time a Russian head of state has visited our country. There are a number of reasons for our expectations. First, everyone realises that our two countries have a lot in common and that this brings us closer together. Yes, trade between our countries is also increasing and, as you rightly pointed out, has already reached $2 billion, but our countries have much greater potential and we would not be wrong to consider today’s trade figures still only insignificant.

Our countries have everything we require to be able to develop our trade ties further and to even out the trade balance. Yes, yesterday I did visit the Sukhoi Design and Engineering Bureau and saw for myself that Russia has indeed made great technological achievements. In fact, President Luiz Inacio Lula has appointed a special commission to wok specifically in this area.

The first step will evidently be to take a closer look at some of the technical characteristics of Russian arms and then to work on the commercial side of things. On the commercial side of things, there are very good chances because everyone believes now that it is possible to do successful business with Russia.

Mr President, I would like to once again confirm the feelings of solidarity that we expressed to your country during those tragic days when you were struck by this immense sorrow that cost so many lives. I want to say once more that we are with you during these difficult moments in life, and that we are ready to do all we can to fight this evil both at regional and international level.

Mr President, tomorrow I shall leave for St. Petersburg. I must add that the main purpose of my visit to Russia is to take part in the work of the High-Level Commission on Cooperation. This commission was set up in 1997, and as Vice President of Brazil I am in charge of the Brazilian side of its work. My counterpart here is Prime Minister Fradkov and I will be meeting with him today to discuss a broad range of issues regarding our political, trade and economic, scientific and cultural cooperation and cooperation in various other areas. I think that we will also make use of the High-Level Commission’s work to prepare for your upcoming visit to Brazil, which, I am sure, will take place in a very positive atmosphere and will be a great success.