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Vladimir Putin: Dear ladies and gentlemen!

Dear Mr President!

The talks that just took place with the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, made an active contribution towards developing the Russian-Egyptian dialogue. I believe that our respected guest will agree with the proposition that our talks were very substantial and fruitful.

Egypt is one of Russia’s important partners. Our relations are really comprehensive political and economic relations – a comprehensive strategic partnership. We support constant political contacts, we develop our economic ties, and we value the closeness of our relations in the cultural and educational spheres.

Following 2005 we reached the mark of 1,600 million USD of trade. And in comparison to a similar period, over eight months of 2006 our volume of trade increased by 52 percent. More and more Russian companies are participating in the Egyptian market. In our opinion, vast prospects are opening up in key sectors such as energy, oil, gas and high-tech. Today we talked about a pilot project of creating a special Russian industrial zone in Egypt.

As I already said, our educational and cultural ties are developing actively. This year the Russian-Egyptian University began operating in Cairo. This was President Mubarak’s initiative and, as he said, this is the first university that has been opened in such a short time frame. This is the first such educational institution in the Middle East. We consider that opening this university will act as a serious impulse to bilateral ties in the sphere of education, joint research and student exchanges.

The Days of Russian Science in Egypt, held in March 2006, were a significant event. Along with this, the fact that Russian archeologists are now engaged in important and profound studies in Egypt has attracted our special attention and will receive our special support. Our experts are participating in conducting research on a monument of global value – the crypt of imperial mummies – and we expect that Russia could be one of the first countries where these archeological treasures can be exhibited.

An important part of our dialogue today concerned the international agenda. Of course this concerns the situation in Palestine. Russia consistently advocates renewing the process of finding a Middle Eastern settlement. We are united in the opinion that we must increase the effectiveness of international intermediaries involved in the Middle Eastern settlement. We believe that work within the Quartet can only be successful if the influential forces in the region – and we undoubtedly include Egypt in this category – join in this work. We believe that the Egyptian leadership can play an important role in establishing contacts between Palestinians and Israelis and also in achieving harmony within Palestine itself, harmony that is so necessary today. We intend to further coordinate our actions with the Egyptian leadership.

Today we certainly spoke about other regional problems – about the situation in Iraq, the Iranian nuclear dossier, the situation surrounding Syria, Lebanon and the conflict in Darfur. And it is important to note that our countries’ approaches towards resolving the majority of these thorny issues are in concordance.

In conclusion I would like to thank our visitor, the President of Egypt, for his genuinely friendly and trusting dialogue.

Our countries have a really wide range of issues in which they cooperate as well as possibilities for further developing their foreign policy and business dialogue.

Thank you for your attention.

President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak: I am always happy to meet with President Putin, especially considering the role that Russia plays in world and international affairs. We now had the opportunity to meet and to consult on many regional and international issues as well as discuss the various ways that friendship and cooperation between Egypt and Russia can develop in the future.

My visit to Moscow in 2004 and President Putin’s visit to Cairo in 2005 acted as strong stimuli for the development of our bilateral relations. Our consultations today confirmed our aspirations to prolong this impulse and to develop our partnership based on the successes that we have achieved in the last two years. The negotiations also confirmed our aspirations to further strengthen our bilateral relations in the trade and economic spheres, in using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, in the space sector, in computing and in other high-tech fields.

Exchanging opinions on our positions with respect to various international and regional problems was extremely important. And I was very pleased that these positions coincided with respect to the situation in the Middle East, on the Palestinian problem, in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Darfur and in the African Horn. I would also like to express my pleasure that we are of the same opinion on the need to reestablish the Middle Eastern peace process, especially to unblock the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and open the way to finding a solution.

Today’s meeting with President Putin increased my confidence in the future of our countries’ relations: that these relations will grow stronger and that we can together make a contribution towards strengthening peace and stability in the Middle East as well as peace and security throughout the world.