Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Dear Mr President, dear colleagues,

Allow me to welcome you to Moscow. I am very pleased to see you. The European Union is one of Russia’s principle and most important partners. Europe is one of the main priorities of our foreign and economic policy.

I am very grateful to you, Mr President, for finding the time to come to Moscow today in the run up to the Russia-EU summit and the G8 summit in St Petersburg.

I am pleased to have this opportunity to talk informally this evening about the whole range of relations between Russia and the European Union.

Jose Manuel Barroso (back translation): Thank you very much, Mr President.

It is a great honour for me to have this opportunity to come here to Moscow and talk with you in an informal setting about how you see the role and place of Russia and Europe today, and about the development of relations between Russia and the European Union. Russia is one of our most important partners in terms of expanding cooperation between our organisation and your country.

Although we will be meeting in two months time for the Russia-EU summit in Sochi, and will meet again in July at the G8 summit, it is also important to have this informal discussion on how to deepen our relations, relations that are so important for the dialogue between the EU and Russia.

I highlight the fact too that our meeting today is very timely as we will be holding the EU summit next week and it is therefore very useful for me to know your views in the run up to this important and significant event in the European Union’s life.