Official website of the President of Russia

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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Solana, my esteemed colleague. I am very happy to see you and to welcome you to Russia. I think I could address you as Mr Foreign Minister. I am pleased to see the consistent development of relations between Russia and the European Union. We are finding common ground in more and more areas. As far as I have been informed, the meeting with our Foreign Minister in Luxemburg at the beginning of April went quite well. We are making good progress on preparing the documents that are due to be signed on May 10 in Moscow.

It is also good to note that in the area you are directly responsible for we are also making progress. This includes our joint efforts to settle conflicts.

Overall, we are very pleased to see you.

Javier Solana: Thank you, Mr President. It is a pleasure for me to be here and I thank you for your hospitality and for your kindness in inviting me here. I think that our relations, as you noted, are improving all the time and I am sure that the summit that will take place on May 10 – only weeks away now – will be a success. The documents on the four common spaces have practically all been approved now and I am sure that we will be able to fully complete this work in the coming days. I am certain, therefore, that the summit will go very well and will, without doubt, give renewed impetus to further development of our relations.

I hope that we will be able to discuss some international issues today that concern both Russia and the EU. I hope that we will continue in the future to share a common point of view on certain international issues. Once again, I thank you for your hospitality and your friendship.