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President Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Chairman,

It is a great pleasure to have this opportunity to meet with you. We see your country as one of our priority partners in the region.

Our political dialogue is developing steadily and this is very good to see. Of course, we do need to give an additional boost to developing our trade and economic ties.

In this respect, we hope very much that the agreements reached by our prime ministers will be implemented and that the Intergovernmental Commission will resume its work.

Nebojsa Radmanovic: Mr President,

Thank you for your warm words. Bosnia and Herzegovina hopes for good economic cooperation with the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation plays an exceptionally important role in world affairs, and this in turn is very important for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

If you will allow, I would like to say a few words about economic cooperation. First, there is the unresolved issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s debt for Russian gas that was supplied during the conflict period. This issue has burdened our economic relations but is now 90 percent settled, and I hope that we will be able to resolve the remaining 10 percent over the next two months.

Second, and very important today, is the Russian investment in Bosnia and Herzegovina, specifically, in the Republika Srpska. I spoke about this not long before you arrived at the summit. This investment has been made by Zarubezhneft, which has acquired two refineries in the Republika Srpska. We see this issue as settled and resolved, at least as far as the government of the Republika Srpska is concerned.

Specialists from Zarubezhneft are in the towns of Grot and Matrici, sorting out all the questions. For Bosnia and Herzegovina, this investment by Russian companies is extremely important. These companies will develop two major refineries and have also acquired a chain of petrol stations.