Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, I appreciate having the opportunity to meet with you to discuss prospects for the development of Russian-Danish relations.

Yesterday we both attended a dinner [a gala evening for heads of state attending the 64th UN General Assembly session], which focused on climate issues. This is just one of the dimensions of our cooperation, but I think it is a very important one, especially in the run-up to the conference to be held in Copenhagen.

Our trade relations in recent years have developed quite well. They continue to increase by leaps and bounds, and currently they total several billions of dollars. Although at the beginning of this year there was a slowdown, I am sure that we will regain lost ground as our economies start growing again.

Our challenge is to find new modes of cooperation, to find new projects that will be useful for our countries. So I think that we have a pretty good agenda. I suggest that we briefly go over it.

Prime Minister of Denmark Lars Lokke Rasmussen (as translated into Russian): Mr President, First of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity to meet and discuss further the issues that we touched on yesterday.

I assume that this will be a very short meeting, but nevertheless I very much appreciate this opportunity. For me it is a sign that our historically good relations will continue to improve.

Last week I spoke on the phone with Prime Minister of Russia Mr Putin and he invited me to Moscow. I hope we will soon set the date for this visit. I'm particularly looking forward to this trip, since my last visit to Russia took place in 1985. Your country has changed a great deal since then.

I completely support what you just said about our trade relations. They are very well-balanced and should continue to develop, despite the minor slowdown caused by the global financial crisis, and we will overcome these problems.

We have a lot in common in various areas of potential cooperation, even if we are here to discuss climate change issues. This topic is very important to me because the conference devoted to this subject will be held in Denmark.