Official website of the President of Russia

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Russian President Vladimir Putin:

Dear Mr Minister! Dear colleagues!

Allow me to welcome you once again.

I am very glad to have the opportunity to meet with you in Moscow and this time to talk about our bilateral relations since we have already had the opportunity to discuss issues pertaining to the G8 with our colleagues.

As a whole we are satisfied with Russian-American relations that are developing in an active way. And we agree with our American partners regarding our partnership's strategic character.

Our trade and economic ties are growing from year to year at very high rates, more than 40 percent a year. And this is the case in practically all sectors, including in the energy sector.

The share of Russian energy resources on the American market has increased from the twelfth to the eighth largest share.

I think that in the next three or four years it is entirely possible that we reach a situation whereby Russian energy resources will occupy the third or fourth place in the American market.

However this is not the only significant element in our relations. Our cooperation is far richer than this. And therefore I very much expect that our negotiators will be able to finish the negotiating process concerning Russia's accession to the WTO. This would create even better preconditions for the development of trade and economic relations, including in the investment sphere.

US Treasury Secretary John Snow (back translation):

Many thanks Mr President. I want to pass on the greetings and best wishes from Mr Bush and all of your many friends in the United States.

Russian Finance Minister Mr Kudrin has set the bar high during the meeting of the G8 finance ministers. Both the carefulness with which the meeting was prepared and its full agenda made this meeting incomparable with any other meeting I have had the honour to take part in. He really made us work.

In addition, last night we had a very enjoyable opportunity; we were given a concert by young people whose talent can be measured on a global scale.

Regarding your accession to the WTO, let me assure you that we firmly believe that this document will be signed soon.

Only several unresolved questions remain between us and, as I understand it, one of these questions lies within my sphere of competence and that of Finance Minister Mr Kudrin. As you are well aware, the issue is opening financial markets. It seems to me that we discussed this issue in quite a bit of detail last night. I think that we significantly reduced the difference between our positions and that we are very close to finding a solution to this problem.