Official website of the President of Russia

Transcripts   /

President Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr President.

Let me once more wish you a warm welcome to Moscow.

I hope that we did not exhaust you too much yesterday evening, and that you had the chance to rest.

I must say that even though officially your visit is only just starting now, I would still like to thank you for yesterday evening. I believe that it was very productive.

I am pleased to note that the nature of our relations gives us every justification to state that true partner relations of a strategic nature have been established between Russia and China. We are very happy to have the chance to meet with you and your Chinese colleagues and friends who came here with you to discuss current problems and issues of a mid-term perspective. We are developing a new mechanism of cooperation and are pleased to note that good cooperation has been established in the security sphere. Economic ties are developing, and today we will undoubtedly discuss the most promising areas of our interaction in the sphere of economic cooperation.

I am sure that your visit, dear Mr President, will be a milestone in the development of relations between our peoples and countries.

Hu Jintao (translated from Russian): Dear Mr President, first of all allow me to thank you for your kind invitation to visit Russia.

I would also like to thank you for the very warm and ccordial reception yesterday evening. Yesterday’s reception took place in a very friendly, home-like atmosphere. We exchanged opinions on issues of bilateral relations, and also on important international problems which are of mutual interest for our countries.

You could say that our talk yesterday was preparation for today’s official part, and laid a good foundation for our talks today.

Both sides express their satisfaction with the success achieved in recent years in the development of our relations.

I intend to exchange opinions with you, Mr President, on deepening strategic partnership between China and Russia, on strengthening practical cooperation of the two countries in various areas. I am certain that we will reach agreement on a wide range of issues on further developing strategic interaction in international affairs.

Mr Putin: We finished the meeting yesterday when it was already 3 a.m. in Beijing, but I hope that this will not affect the intensiveness of our work today, and that your wife will also have a chance to better know Moscow.