Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon.
My colleague and I would like to inform you very briefly about what we discussed today. I must say that I am very pleased with our consultations. And I want to thank the Polish President for the attention he has been personally paying to relations between Russia and Poland. I think it would be no exaggeration to say that his efforts have contributed a lot to our relations, achieving new highs in practically all areas. It is enough to say that Mr President’s visit to Russia and our repeated contacts – personally, by telephone, through correspondence – have had a positive effect above all on the economic sphere. Last year we set a 10-year record: trade between our two countries reached almost $5.5 billion.
We discussed the need to develop these contacts in all fields and spoke about the necessity of diversifying our economic ties. We also spoke about steady power deliveries to Poland from Russia. And discussed some specific plans.
Mr President agreed and pledged his word that he would come to Moscow to attend the Days of Polish Science in Russia. We will welcome the Polish head of state with pleasure. Especially since this is one of the areas which, as people here say, has much room for cooperation. And I am sure this area will be one of our priorities. Also, we are interested in ties between Russia and Poland in the humanities, culture and education.
We also took up regional issues. Russia and Poland are interested, for example, in the future of Kaliningrad. As you understand, this matter interests us in the first place, since this is a territory of the Russian Federation that may soon find itself surrounded by a united Europe, by European countries belonging to the European Union. And Mr President agreed that – and this is his opinion as far as I understood – Kaliningrad should naturally fit into the united Europe, while at the same time remaining an undoubted part of Russia as one of the Russian regions. I think this interest is shared both by Poland and Russia, and above all, of course, by the people of Kaliningrad. That is far from complete list of the issues discussed.
Mr President kindly invited me to visit Poland, and we agreed that the visit by the President of the Russian Federation to Poland would take place in mid-January of next year.
It should be added that we also discussed some international issues, including the situation in the Balkans. And, if I correctly understood Mr President, our assessments practically coincided.