President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People's Congress Wu Bangguo, dear Chinese colleagues,
First of all, I wish you welcome to the Kremlin. Your visit reflects the rapid development of relations between our two countries, relations that today have become a strategic partnership. This explains why we have such an intensive schedule of contacts. I met just recently with China’s foreign minister, and with the defence minister, and now we are very happy to see you here.
Of course, I also have a big agenda for meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who I met with already this year in London. We will soon receive the Chinese President on an official visit to Russia, and we will also see each other at meetings of the SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation], BRIC [Brazil, Russia, India, China] and other international forums.
Of course, Mr Chairman, you have meetings lined up with your colleagues, the Speaker of the State Duma [Boris Gryzlov] and the Speaker of the Federation Council [Sergei Mironov].
I think that contact between our parliaments opens new and important opportunities for cooperation given that the legislative support for the work we are doing in our countries, and also international events and our responses to them all depend on the work of our legislative bodies.
In this respect, I think that consultations between parliaments are vital at this time of global economic crisis, when we need to synchronise our foreign policy, stay in constant touch with each other, discussing the different issues and looking for solutions to the problems our economies face today.
Mr Chairman, I hope that your visit to the Russian Federation and your contacts with Russia’s parliament will be fruitful. I hope that we will continue this kind of contact in the future, in order to strengthen friendship between Russia and China so as to work together on the international stage.
chairman of the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’S Congress Wu Bangguo (as translated from Russian): Thank you, Mr President, for these warm words, and thank you for this opportunity to meet with you. I am very pleased to meet with you once again here today in Moscow.
First of all, I would like to pass on President Hu Jintao’s greetings and best wishes. We know, Mr President, that you place great importance on developing relations with our country. You visited our country during the first months of your presidency with great success.
You have made an immense contribution to building up Russian-Chinese relations and maintaining their steady and healthy development. Our relations have already reached quite a high level, and China greatly values this fact.
This year, as you know, we are celebrating 60 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. This year is also Russian Language Year in China, and so we think this is a particularly significant year for developing our relations. I specifically want to say that through our mutual efforts, our strategic partnership and cooperation are currently undergoing very rapid and comprehensive development.
As you said, you had a fruitful meeting a month ago with President Hu Jintao during the [G20] financial summit in London. At that meeting you reached agreements on deepening our bilateral cooperation, including by working out joint measures to counter the global financial crisis.
Just a short time ago, our countries signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the oil sector. We consider this a big step forward in our work together in the raw materials sector. I also note that Russian Language Year in China got a successful debut which I think will help make our young people even more enthusiastic about studying Russian.
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