See also
The two leasers agreed to intensify cooperation, specifically in such areas as agriculture and the study of the Antarctic.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Madam President, friends, welcome. It gives me great pleasure to see you again.
We have always had a good partnership with Chile. This year we will soon be marking 70 years of diplomatic relations between our states. We maintain an intensive political dialogue; we have set up an intergovernmental commission and business council, which are operating successfully. Naturally, our relations should be augmented by numerous economic ties that would reflect our countries’ potential.
I am very happy to see you again.
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet (retranslated): Good afternoon, Mr President. Thank you very much for this meeting. I am happy to see you again; last time we met was on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Brazil.
You mentioned that December 11 marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries. In fact, our relations have existed even longer, because in 1909 a Russian ambassador presented his credentials to our country, which means our relations are even older.
As you have said, we are maintaining dialogue on a number of various issues. We hope we will have more specific achievements and will make progress in such areas as, for instance, drafting an agreement on cooperation in education and culture, joining efforts on combatting organised crime, ties in energy and exchange of statistical data. As I have said, we already have established ties in culture as well as in defence, where we expect to expand our cooperation with the Russian Federation in the future.
Our bilateral commission is working on a number of matters, including cooperation in the sphere of customs and energy. Tatiana Valovaya [member of Eurasian Economic Commission Board] is to visit us on November 26. We expect to have a more detailed discussion with her to consolidate the progress made. We hope to achieve practical, specific cooperation in the most important areas for our countries.
As you may know, Mr President, we are strongly interested in the prospect of working together on drafting an agreement on free trade, not only with Russia, but also with the Customs Union. We hope you will support us at the Eurasian Economic Commission as well.
We acknowledge the leading position of the Russian Federation in science and technology, and we would like to see our relations in these areas grow deeper and become more specific.
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