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President of The Republic of Korea Lee Myung-Bak (retranslated): Mr President, please allow me to sincerely welcome you to the Republic of Korea on your visit. We, all the Korean people and everyone here in this hall, welcome you.

We established diplomatic relations twenty years ago. This is a short period, but in that short time of established diplomatic relations, we have strengthened our cooperation in various areas. I think that our cooperation has been getting even more active recently, and I hope that it will continue doing so in the future.

Mr President, I am certain that your current visit to the Republic of Korea will facilitate not only the maintenance of peace and stability in the region, in Northeast Asia, but also the development of cooperation between our nations in politics, the economy, the social sector, and culture.

Mr President, South Korea strives to cooperate with Russia, including through implementation of the project to explore and develop Eastern Siberia and the Far East, as well as other economic projects.

Today, we will sign a package of documents concerning economic cooperation. I think that in turn, the signing of these documents will serve as a good incentive for launching more concrete projects between our countries in the future.

I would like to give you the floor. After that, we can engage in a more specific discussion.

President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, colleagues,

It is true that September 30 of this year was a memorable event: it marked the 20^th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our states.

Since then, our relations have progressed significantly toward a true partnership, and today they are advancing in every area: in economy, politics, regional and humanitarian cooperation.

This visit, a serious visit, involves discussing a wide range of issues of a bilateral nature and interregional cooperation, but moreover, it is marked by the signing of many documents concerning economic and other kinds of cooperation.

In my view, we have very significant prospects for expanding our cooperation. I would like to assure you, Mr President, that the Russian side is ready for this kind of cooperation – I am referring to a whole range of projects that we discussed and prospects for cooperating in the modern technologies sector, as well as other subjects where we have reached a common understanding.

Let’s continue our discussion of such matters.

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