President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister,
I am pleased to have this opportunity to have a bilateral meeting with you and discuss the development outlook for Russian-Slovenian relations. I think that our relations have very bright prospects. We have achieved quite a lot of late, as can be seen by our stronger humanitarian ties, in particular the development of the Slavic dialogue and the forums we just discussed. Our economic relations are also developing at quite a good pace. Our bilateral trade is likely to reach a figure of $2 billion by the end of the year, and I think this is a good result for our cooperation. We have big projects, some of which were named during the press conference, and we will discuss these projects during our meeting. I would like to thank you once again for the work you have carried out as President-in-office of the European Council and for your contribution to preparing today’s decisions.
Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Jansa (retranslated from Russian): Mr President,
Let me start by thanking you for the hospitality you have shown us and for your help in organizing this summit. We have achieved good results even though we had to travel a difficult road to get to them.
Our bilateral cooperation has produced good results. Two years ago, when I was in Moscow in 2006, we discussed a trade turnover figure of $1 billion and set the objective of doubling it. Today we have practically doubled this figure. Over the last six months we have carried out a lot of work not just in the areas we discussed today but also in the area of cultural ties between our countries.