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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President! Allow me to thank you for accepting the invitation and for taking such active part in our discussion today. I know that yesterday some of my colleagues from the G8 started to prepare for the discussion with you on world trade.

Our bilateral relations are developing quite successfully. I am referring to our high-level contacts and the growth of our volume of trade. Last year our trade grew by 30 percent more then the previous year. The number of areas in which we cooperate is increasing. Prospects for developing our cooperation in sectors such as space exploration, aviation construction, agriculture and energy are very promising.

Mr President, I am very glad to see you and to have the opportunity to exchange opinions with you on various issues on the international agenda.

President of Brazil Lula Da Silva: First and foremost, Mr Putin, I would like to express my sincere thanks for the invitation to take part in the G8 summit. Secondly, I would like to congratulate you on two moments that are directly connected to the discussion that is taking place in St Petersburg.

First of all, I would like to congratulate you on successfully hosting the summit and on including energy security and the Doha Round of trade talks in the discussions. I think that if we do not come to an agreement then we would be taking a big step backwards and seriously harm the interests of the poorest countries of the world. For that reason I think it was important that these themes were on the agenda for discussion at the summit. And I can say that I am looking optimistically at the future and I think that President Chirac will soften his position a little bit.

Russian-Brazilian mutual relations are developing successfully. And I think that they can still significantly improve. There are several themes that I would like to discuss with you. I think that in the coming years our volume of trade will substantially increase. Brazil has a positive balance in its trade with Russia. But I think that we must work together to make our trade relations more equal since, as they say, good trade is a two-way street.

Vladimir Putin: Thanks to diversification.

Lula Da Silva: Yes. Diversification.