Mr Putin and Mr Zeman first discussed trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Mr Putin said trade between Russia and the Czech Republic had reached $2.5 billion. The President said the Czech Prime Minister had recently done a great deal to promote trade and economic ties between the two countries. He noted that bilateral cooperation between Moscow and Prague covered more than 25 major projects, including energy and engineering.
President Putin also stated that there was an improvement in the overall political atmosphere of Russian-Czech relations.
Mr Putin and Mr Zeman expressed satisfaction with the level of economic cooperation between Russia and the Czech Republic and with the prospects opening up in relations between Moscow and Prague in some sectors, particularly military-technical cooperation.
They also discussed relations between the two countries in the context of the upcoming enlargement of the European Union and European security issues in the context of Russia-NATO relations. Mr Zeman declared his support for the work being done to establish a mechanism of the political “twenty”.
Russia and the Czech Republic were in agreement that any attempts to review the results of the Second World War were futile – this point of view was also voiced at the meeting.
Mr Putin conveyed an invitation to President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic to visit Russia.