President Vladimir Putin:
Mr Prime Minister,
Allow me to wish you a warm welcome to Moscow. This is our fifth meeting. All of our previous meetings have produced positive results and have given a good boost to the development of our intergovernmental relations. I am sure that your visit this time will also be productive.
We greatly value your contribution to the development of relations between Russia and the European Union. Our bilateral relations are also at a high level.
We are very happy to see you. Welcome!
Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis: Mr President,
It gives me great pleasure to the opportunity and the honour to visit the Russian Federation’s capital once again as part of the meetings that we have already held on more than one occasion in the past. These meetings have been particularly frequent of late.
The historic ties that have developed between our countries and our peoples have been growing stronger ever more actively of late, especially in the energy sector, a sector in which cooperation is of particular importance for both our countries.
Mr President, we see Russia as our strategic partner and we hope that my visit today will help to reaffirm this fact and strengthen and deepen our future cooperation.
I would like to congratulate you on the victory in the recent parliamentary election. I hope for fruitful continuation of our cooperation.
Thank you very much for the warm and hospitable reception.