President Vladimir Putin: First of all, I would like to thank you and all our Chilean colleagues and friends for their hospitality and for the open and meaningful dialogue that we have developed over these years, as has been confirmed during this visit. I hope that this meeting will give a dynamic boost to developing relations between Russia and Chile in all different areas.
We discussed a wide range of bilateral and international issues during our talks. I must say that our views and approaches are similar in many respects. They have been reflected in the Joint Declaration we approved today.
Russia and Chile are in favour of building a fair and democratic world order and strengthening the central role played by the United Nations in maintaining global stability and security. We believe that international problems should be resolved through a coordinated and collective approach.
We intend to keep developing our relations and expanding our political and economic cooperation.
I must note that Chile’s authority and influence could be of real help to Russia in developing its ties with authoritative regional organisations on the American continent. We have a mutual interest in expanding Russia’s contacts with the leading political and integration-minded organisations in the region, above all with such organisations as the Organisation of American States, the Rio Group and MERCOSUR. We also see great prospects for cooperation within APEC.
The economic aspect is a very important part of our relations. We have good prospects for cooperation in trade, in investment, science and technology and many other areas that we discussed together one-on-one and in an enlarged meeting with our colleagues.
We have agreed to seriously intensify our business cooperation. There are good conditions for doing this in the mining industry, in non-ferrous metals, in the energy sector and also in high-technology sectors, nuclear energy and the peaceful exploration of space.
An intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation was set up in 2003 precisely to carry out these ambitious plans. We hope that its work will soon start bringing tangible results. We agree with you, Mr President, that we should arrange a meeting of the commission soon and not delay, not let the matter drag out, but hold a meeting in the first quarter of 2005, somewhere around March, as you suggested.
A representative delegation of Russian businesspeople have come here to Chile with me and they are here in this hall. We hope that their direct contacts with their Chilean colleagues will be fruitful and will enable us to launch new projects and open up new possibilities for our work together.
When we met in Moscow in 2002, the President and I agreed to step up our work to expand and renew the legal basis of our relations. I am sure that the documents we signed today, above all the convention on avoiding double taxation, will make a great contribution to forming an effective infrastructure for our business cooperation.
In conclusion, I would once more like to thank our Chilean colleagues for their hospitality and the interest they have shown in the issues discussed.
Thank you for your attention.
Question (Channel 13, Chile): Mr Putin, you have spoken warmly of President Lagos, Chile’s foreign policy and its independent policy regarding the invasion of Iraq. Would you like to use the APEC forum to appeal to President Bush to refrain from further intervention in Iraq?
Vladimir Putin: We do indeed cooperate actively with our Chilean partners in various international organisations, as I already said. As for the prospects for developing international relations, our countries share similar views on many international issues. We see what an effective and independent line Chile takes in the international organisations. Chile not only has its own position on a number of key international problems but also works actively in the Security Council and actively together with ourselves and the other participants in the international anti-terrorist coalition on anti-terrorist issues, and, as is known, heads the committee on anti-Taliban issues.
Regarding Iraq, Russia’s position is well known and has not changed. But we also believe that we need to be looking to the future and that we need to help get Iraq back on its feet and unite the efforts of the international community to work together to achieve this. We support holding a broad-based international conference that would bring together all interested countries, above all, Iraq’s neighbours, to help settle the problems Iraq faces and help consolidate Iraqi society. We need to help put in place the conditions that will enable the Iraqi people to take their country’s destiny into their own hands. We will work in this direction together with our partners, with Chile, and with the United States, with whom we have the opportunity to discuss this and other problems, both within the international organisations and at bilateral level. We will have the chance to meet with President Bush here during this summit that your country has organised. We will, of course, discuss many international issues, including the problem of Iraq.
Question (Kommersant newspaper): My question is for the Chilean President, Mr Lagos. Does Chile plan anytime soon to recognise Russia as a country with a market economy? If I am not mistaken, such intentions were announced on a number of occasions recently. I propose that you delay no longer. And a question for Mr Putin too, what are your views on this issue?
President of Chile Ricardo Lagos: We just said that we see the Russian Federation’s accession to the World Trade Organisation as a positive step and that we think Russia has already taken major steps in this direction. I think that we will continue moving towards this important objective. I think the People’s Republic of China is moving the same way. We have achieved certain successes with China. If the Russian Federation becomes a full member of the WTO, this would be recognition of Russia as a country with a market economy and it would also be recognition of Russia’s important role on the international stage. This is why it is important in this context to develop bilateral relations between our businesspeople.
Vladimir Putin: You know our position, which is we see no problem with Russia’s recognition as a country with a market economy. Many countries have already declared this recognition, but the documents that we signed today mark another step forward towards Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, and the position taken by our Chilean partners indicates precisely a view of the Russian economy as having the status that I just referred to. We have no difficulties so far in our relations with Chile. This recognition issue does not impose any sort of restriction on our work together and I think that the talks we held today and the contacts between our business community representatives will show whether there is any problem here or not. As things stand at the moment, I see no such problem.