President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues,
Welcome once again to Yekaterinburg. Yekaterinburg is currently the epicentre of world politics living through a hot time in both the literal and figurative sense. It is hot outside, and inside very important summits are taking place.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit just ended and it definitely produced results; the discussion was useful and trusting.
And today we have a very important event too: the first full summit of BRIC countries. It is obvious that we now need to meet in this format and not merely communicate via our colleagues, the ministers of foreign affairs and other ministers. Rather, the four state leaders need to meet to discuss the situation in the global economy and critical issues in the international financial system.
Despite the fact that we often meet and communicate within other forums, it is very likely that this kind of coordination would help clarify each other’s positions and help us develop new innovative ways to address international financial problems and reform international financial relations.
Moreover, the countries represented at this round table have a significant weight in the global economy. The two largest countries in terms of population [India and China] are here, and Brazil and Russia are far from small. And ultimately, our success in implementing new economic programmes and reforming international financial relations will depend on the extent to which we understand each other’s positions and perhaps develop joint proposals.
I hope that our meeting today will be a starting point for future negotiations and the intensive development of this new forum, BRIC. We certainly have a wide variety of opportunities available to us: in economic, cultural, educational and foreign policies. I hope we will find common ground and adopt new interesting and advanced decisions in our mutual interest and for the benefit of our peoples.
Once again I would like to welcome you, colleagues.
Let us begin our work.
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