Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Dear Mr Minister! Dear friends and colleagues!

Allow me to welcome you once again.

First of all dear Mr Minister, I wish to thank you for participating in yesterday's event – the meeting of the heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member countries. I hope that yesterday's meeting with the Russian Co-Chairman of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission for the development of economic cooperation was successful.

Let me point out that Russian-Indian relations have reached an unprecedented high level and political contacts are practically uninterrupted.

And of course, the year's important event will be the visit of the Indian Prime Minister to the Russian Federation. We are preparing for this visit. I hope that your meeting yesterday with Mr Zhukov and colleagues from the Russian government will mark an essential stage in the preparation for the Indian Prime Minister's visit.

Welcome Mr Minister.

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh (translated from Russian): Mr President!

Many thanks for having found the time to meet with me and members of my delegation.

Yesterday we had a very good meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister. We discussed a wide range of questions and reached agreements on most of them.

I think that out of all of the intergovernmental commission's sessions, yesterday's was one of the most successful.

Mr President, I would like to transmit the Indian President's, Prime Minister's and Sonia Gandhi's best regards. The Prime Minister is eagerly awaiting the visit to Russia.

In addition I would like to thank you for the very warm reception. It is a great honour for me to be received by you in this historical place.