Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Chairman!

Please allow me to welcome you once again to St Petersburg. I am very glad that we are able to meet so regularly. Yesterday quite a remarkable event took place – the fifth anniversary of the signing of the friendship agreement between our countries. I am very pleased to be able to say that this document is working. All of its provisions are being implemented. And I would like to point out something else as well – events linked to the Year of Russia in China are being actively carried out. And I know that our colleagues are ready to start preparing for the Year of the People’s Republic of China in Russia that will be held in 2007.

I would like to thank you for actively taking part in today’s discussion. I have already said and would like to confirm once again that without the participation of countries such as the People’s Republic of China and India we cannot consider that any discussion on global economic problems is a universal one. This also applies to security issues and for that reason I would like to thank you once again for accepting our invitation to come to the summit.

chairman of the People’S Republic of China Hu Jintao: I am very glad to have the opportunity to meet with you in St Petersburg. First and foremost I would like to congratulate you, Mr President, on the fifth anniversary of signing the Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and China.

I would also like to thank you for the invitation to the G8 summit. Today the summit meeting you hosted was a real success for you. I congratulate you. As you said, today Chinese-Russian relations are developing successfully. High-levels of government maintain very close contacts. And this year we have already met three times both in bilateral and multilateral formats. The agreements that were reached during these meeting are being implemented actively and our strategic cooperation and partnership relations have received a new impulse. We are pleased with this.

In the first part of this year events linked to the Year of China in Russia were a success. We achieved our goal of deepening our friendship and cooperation. In the second part of this year we must continue carrying out such events and actively prepare for the Year of China in Russia. I am convinced that this event that we initiated together will help develop the Chinese-Russian partnership and the level of our strategic cooperation. I am also confident that the far-reaching significance of these events will impact on the further development of our relations.