President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: We made each other’s acquaintance and began discussing the current bilateral relations agenda at the last summit. Here we are now at the APEC summit, which has just concluded successfully with the adoption of our joint declaration.
Now we are holding this bilateral meeting and I hope that we will have the chance to discuss all relevant aspects of our relations, from economic and humanitarian ties to the most complex issues that we have inherited from the past.
Prime Minister of Japan Yukio Hatoyama: (as translated into Russian): Mr Medvedev, I want to start by thanking you for this opportunity to meet. I remember with pleasure our last meeting in the USA in September, when we had the chance to discuss a broad range of issues. Approximately two months have passed now since I became prime minister. I recently made a speech in parliament in which I said that we consider Russia a good partner in the Asia-Pacific region, and I expressed my desire to build new relations between our two countries.