President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President Garcia, ladies and gentlemen,
Along with our delegation, I am very happy to be here. Naturally, our delegation is not small because this is a Russian President’s first official visit to Peru. This is why a large Russian team is here. This confirms our desire to expand contacts with our Peruvian colleagues to the greatest possible extent.
I would like to once again thank you for the first-class preparations for the APEC summit and our first visit to Peru. We appreciate this. Doubtless, this facilitated an atmosphere that has existed during our visit.
You and I have just negotiated behind closed doors, discussed various aspects of our life and other recent developments. Russian-Peruvian diplomatic relations were established almost 40 years ago. Next year, we will celebrate the 40th anniversary of our relations. I think we will achieve positive results prior to that anniversary.
You have mentioned the small bilateral trade turnover. We can rectify this situation. Both countries are displaying serious mutual interest. You have mentioned cooperation in many diverse sectors.
I fully confirm our interest in developing economic contacts. I am talking about projects in the field of energy, gas, electricity generation, sea ports, the implementation of some oil and gas transportation projects, as well as those in the ore-mining industry, medicine, space exploration and the nuclear power industry.
All this, plus our traditional contacts in the sphere of military-technical cooperation, can become our joint work. We are ready to expand these contacts on an entirely new basis, because this would also prove extremely interesting for us.
We have agreed to reinstate the inter-governmental commission for reviewing all these issues, because it would be hard to proceed without a working mechanism. We have set some rather ambitious goals before our teams. This is why I believe that we will create these commissions and issue the required directives.
In effect, such directives are reflected in a substantial package of agreements, due to be signed by us here today.
However, this package does not yet include a number of documents, namely, those, concerning Gazprom’s entry to the Peruvian market, the agreements mentioned by you, the agreement on mutual investment protection and a possible agreement on avoiding dual taxation. It is impossible to establish full-fledged ties without these tools.
Russia and the former Soviet Union have always taken a liking to Latin American states, including our close friends in Peru. You correctly stated that many colleagues now working in Peru speak Russian. We would like to see the number of Russian-speaking persons not just to remain the same but to increase.
We are also interested in receiving visitors from Peru, so that we could speak Russian and Spanish and could develop multi-faceted contacts.
You mentioned Russian culture’s influence on world culture. I would like to say that such influence is mutual. We realise that we are staying in an extremely ancient country that has outlived several civilisations and which is now developing very successfully, despite the current difficulties facing the world.
This is why I think that we can settle the most diverse issues during our bilateral dialogue.
And now the last thing. Mr President, I would like to sincerely invite you to visit the Russian Federation.