The President’s message of greetings reads in particular:
“I greatly value the contribution that your movement has made over many years now to consistently developing Russian-German relations. Close ties at regional and municipal level promote trade and economic cooperation, encourage industrial, scientific and technical ties and enrich the palette of our cultural and humanitarian exchanges. All of this helps create a broader and more solid base for deepening the dialogue between our peoples and our civil societies, which is an important complement to our multifaceted intergovernmental dialogue.
It is highly symbolic that your meeting is taking place as we celebrate 50 years of partnership between St Petersburg and Hamburg. I am sure that these two cities’ experience of cooperation will serve as a shining example for other participants in the partnership.”