Official website of the President of Russia

Transcripts   /

President Vladimir Putin:

Dear Romano, dear Mr Prime Minister, dear friends! We are very happy to welcome you to Moscow.

I am very pleased that we are meeting again. Our volume of cooperation is so great that we always have things to talk about.

This year we will likely beat last year’s record amount of trade, which was more than 30 billion dollars. And it is especially pleasant to see that our relations are quite diverse: they include energy, the high-tech industry, outer space and aviation.

Welcome!

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi:

Dear Vladimir, dear Mr President! We are very pleased to be here. Indeed, our relations are developing so fast that we could not even have predicted this rate of development.

Our volume of trade really has grown by 30 percent and, as you rightly said, covers not only energy or simply energy products, but many different things: our countries are becoming increasingly integrated.

And I want to stress that we are developing a long-term friendship policy. The two protocols, the two documents that we will sign today reflect the results of what we have already talked about and agreed on. Everything was done according to schedule. And these are not only economic agreements, they also concern mutual understanding, mutual cooperation and common spiritual values. It is precisely on this basis – namely the economy, politics and shared values – that friendship between two countries develops. I think that at our meeting our joint work should also touch on these three themes in order to keep moving forward.