President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,
Let’s get down to work. Of course, before starting to discuss the agenda, I first want to wish you all a warm welcome to Yekaterinburg, one of Russia’s biggest and fastest-growing regions. I think this is an excellent choice of venue for our meeting. I want to note too that it is very symbolic that we are meeting today, on June 15, the date the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation marks its founding. Our organisation is celebrating its eighth birthday today. Time flies by so fast. It seems as though the organisation was established only just so recently, but it has already come such a long way…