Vladimir Putin: Prime Minister, I am very happy to meet with you in your new capacity.
Shinzo Abe (Translated from Russian): I am also very happy to meet with you in this new capacity, now that I am prime minister.
As Deputy Secretary General of the Cabinet, I attended the summit meeting when Mr. Mori was prime minister. I also participated in a meeting with Mr. President under Mr. Koizumi’s premiership, when the Action Plan was adopted.
And I am very happy to meet with you in this new capacity, now that I am prime minister.
Vladimir Putin: We are well aware of the enormous contribution that your father, as Foreign Minister, made to the development of Soviet-Japanese relations. I hope that you will follow your family tradition, furthering relations between Russia and Japan.
Our assessments of our political relations are the same. [The relations] are on a high level, and, in fact, we have kept in touch on all issues on our bilateral and broader international agenda. Our dialog on a peace treaty is continuing, and on our part, we intend to cooperate with you further on this, seeking acceptable solutions.
Trade between our countries is increasing, humanitarian cooperation is on the rise, and investment is growing as largest Japanese companies are coming into Russia’s engineering as well as energy sector. We will continue our efforts in creating a necessary environment for further development of our cooperation in all these areas.
I am very pleased to have an opportunity here in Vietnam to share our views on all topics on our agenda.