President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Minister, dear Chinese colleagues,
It is a pleasure to welcome you and have this chance to meet with you.
A meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation defence ministers is taking place today. But I specially wanted to meet with the defence minister of the People’s Republic of China, because your country is our strategic partner, with whom we have special relations in all different sectors, in the economy, in internal and foreign contacts, and of course also in defence and military-technical policy. We have wide-ranging cooperation in this area, and I think it is in our countries’ and peoples’ interests. Our cooperation is not directed against other countries, but aims to guarantee our countries’ defence capability and strength, and is very useful. It is therefore with pleasure that I welcome you to the Kremlin.