Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to continue the dialogue that we began not long ago in Moscow. I have just refreshed my memory on some of the figures concerning our cooperation and was interested to see that trade between our two countries increased by 92 percent over the last seven months. Although it is not such a huge figure, our bilateral trade looks nonetheless like reaching a total of approximately $2 billion this year. We are working on a number of proposals by our experts and are also working on your proposals, Mr Prime Minister, including on the agreement to abolish visas for Russians travelling to Thailand and for Thai citizens travelling to Russia. We are also working on the cooperation programme for our countries over the upcoming period. I am very happy to have the chance to discuss with you today these and other areas of our joint work.

Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawat: Thank you, Mr President. I have warm memories of the hospitality with which you received me during my brief visit to Russia. Every occasion that I have come to Russia and have had the chance of meeting with you, Mr President, has always given me great happiness and let me see how fast Russia is developing under your leadership.

I am pleased to note, as you rightly pointed out, that our bilateral trade has reached the normal level that we had previously before the economic crisis and also during the Soviet period. I am sure that our cooperation is only set to expand over the coming 2–3 years, especially given the projects in various areas that you and I discussed, including in transport and in modernising Thailand’s armed forces. There are also the projects we have for cooperation in the oil sector and in various scientific areas. I hope that next year, when the APEC summit takes place in Vietnam, you will find the time either on your way to or on your way home from Vietnam, to make a visit to Thailand. I hope that you will then have the opportunity to see the fruit of our cooperation and the results of the investment being made in Thailand.