Official website of the President of Russia

Transcripts   /

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, welcome to Sochi.

As we agreed during my visit to your country, we will hold a working meeting today. Thank you for accepting my invitation.

It is true that we are quite close, as you said, just an hour’s flight or so. Let me stress at the beginning of our meeting that our relations can be considered almost fully restored.

While trade declined by 34 percent last year, this year it has grown by 38 percent, which was in the first 8–9 months of the year. We are working in practically all spheres. We cooperate very closely on security in the Syrian region.

I am very happy that we have a chance to discuss current issues and map out future solutions in real time – we have very good experience in this regard.

It is very good to see you. Welcome.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (retranslated): Mr President,

I am happy to have this opportunity to meet with you after the short time that elapsed since our last meeting. Since we started normalising relations between our countries, we have met very frequently, which helps to develop bilateral relations.

Naturally, our bilateral relations as well as cooperation in solving regional issues give us a chance to look to the future with greater clarity. Every day we are further deepening our political, military, trade, cultural and tourism relations.

In addition to meeting in person, we continue to speak by phone at the highest level. These contacts are becoming more frequent.

Let me thank you once again for the invitation. I am certain that our meeting today will be very effective and that we will leave tomorrow for Kuwait and Qatar with a great sense of satisfaction.

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