President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,
I am pleased to have this chance to meet with you, the representatives of the BRIC countries responsible for security issues.
I hope that you have had productive talks. I note that the BRIC countries’ leaders will be holding a summit soon. We hope that this event will give us the opportunity to discuss our countries’ development. This will be the first such summit and it will take place here in Russia.
We also hope that this event will provide us with an occasion to discuss global security in the traditional sense of the term, and also the issues of guaranteeing economic, food and energy security.
The current global situation obliges us to undertake such efforts. We all face many economic difficulties at the present time, and I think that an extra chance to discuss all of these issues would be useful.
I ask you please to pass on my best wishes to your countries’ leaders. I am looking forward to seeing them here in Russia. I hope that we will discuss a wide range of issues. We will also have the chance to discuss our bilateral relations. Individual meetings are already planned with some leaders, and I hope that we will agree with others to have this kind of contacts. I hope that the Yekaterinburg summit will give a boost to developing cooperation between the BRIC countries. I hope too, to see progress on the issues that you are discussing together today.
It is a pleasure to welcome you here.