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President Vladimir Putin: I very much hope that Mr Paul Martin will remember this visit not just for today’s fruitful talks but also for the chance to get to know Russia and the Russian people.

First of all, I would like to say how pleased I am with the outcome of the meeting we held today. The dialogue between our two countries on the widest range of issues has been given a substantial boost to its development. Canada is an important partner for Russia on the world stage and we place a lot of importance on increasing the cooperation between our two countries. We have a good foundation for this in the close positions we share on key issues in international life, regional issues, mutual economic interests and broad opportunities for social and cultural cooperation.

Of course, we also discussed the fight against terrorism today. We intend to reinforce our work together in this area.

I would also note the positive developments in our trade and economic ties. Our trade volume has doubled over the last six months. The Prime Minister and I did note, however, that trade between our two countries is still at a very low level. We hope that the intergovernmental commission set up several years ago to foster the development of our trade and economic ties will play its part in improving this situation.

The management of Gazprom and Canadian company Petro-Canada signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday in Moscow. The two companies plan to examine the possibility of supplying Russian liquefied gas not only to Canada itself but to the entire North American continent. It is important that we find other new, modern areas for cooperation, new projects.

One promising area is cooperation in the Arctic and the North. Russia next year will take over the relay in the Arctic Council, which was set up some time ago on Canada’s initiative. I informed our guest today about the initiatives that Russia intends to put forward as part of this council’s work and, as far as I understood, the Prime Minister supports our proposals.

I would also like to note the positive agreements reached within the framework of the global partnership, which Canada has actively supported. A bilateral project to process and recycle decommissioned Russian nuclear submarines is already underway in Severomorsk. Part of this programme is being carried out with the support of the Canadian government.

In conclusion, I would once again like to thank the Prime Minister for his constructive and interested cooperation and for the atmosphere of trust and good intention that characterised our talks today. Thank you.

Prime Minister Paul Martin: You probably know that the Russian President and I had the chance at the G8 summit to discuss a good number of questions that we continued discussing at our meeting today. All of you from the mass media received the text of our joint declaration which, in particular, draws attention to the fight against terrorism not just in our own countries but also in the global context.

At the same time, we stated that the fight against terrorism must be accompanied by respect for human rights and this, as I said, is reflected in our joint declaration. The President and I also discussed our common responsibility for our Arctic region and noted in particular environmental issues and the global nature of our cooperation in this area.

We also discussed the opportunities in the business sector and in this respect attention should go to the memorandum of agreement signed by the Petro-Canada corporation and Gazprom. This is a good example of our business cooperation.

I would also like to draw your attention to the meeting that took place this morning with Russian business community representatives and with Canadian business community representatives also participating. We discussed the possibility of setting up a Canadian-Russian Business Council on the lines of the council established by Canada and the United States. We believe this would be an important step forward.

We also discussed the Kyoto process, and in this respect I would like to congratulate the Russian President on the recent decision to join this agreement, and I assured him that we will cooperate closely in this area.

We also discussed the global threats that we face and in this respect we noted the need to promote business cooperation and partnership in the G8.

We also discussed the G20, which held its first meeting with finance ministers participating. We would like to see not only representatives of the G8 countries become involved in this work but also countries such as China, India, Brazil, South Africa and others. We believe this represents serious progress.

Vladimir Putin: I hope that Canada’s position and the Canadian Prime Minister’s support for Russia joining the Kyoto process will reflect positively on the upcoming discussion in the Russian parliament on this question.