President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Minister, I am pleased to have this opportunity to meet with you and discuss the outlook for developing cooperation between Russia and Egypt in all different areas.
Our countries have really taken their dialogue to the strategic level now, and I hope that the upcoming summit will be evidence of this. I am preparing for it with great interest. I hope it will give us the opportunity to discuss economic issues, regional security, and the global situation, including issues concerning the global economy. Most importantly, I hope it will strengthen the foundations of the friendly relations between Russia and Egypt.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit (translated from Russian): Thank you very much, Mr President. It is a great honour to meet with you today. I know you are heading for Khabarovsk soon, and I wish you a successful trip. For this reason, I do not want to take up too much of your time.
We are also preparing for the Russian-Egyptian summit and consider this upcoming event very important for developing our bilateral relations and in terms of your personal contact with President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak.
My colleague, Mr Lavrov, and I have been working together on the text of the new Russian-Egyptian agreement that will cement a new level, a strategic level, in our countries’ cooperation.
Unfortunately, this is just a brief visit. We know what a busy schedule you have. I hope that after this busy trip you are about to make you will find the time and opportunity to spend a few days in Sharm el-Sheikh. If for some reason you are unable to come to Sharm el-Sheikh, I very much hope that you will visit another of Egypt’s resort areas on the Red Sea coast, where you will see a huge number of Russian tourists enjoying their holidays.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you for the invitation, Mr Minister. It would be a great pleasure to take a few days’ holiday, of course, and sooner or later I will certainly do so, but I think that now we need to concentrate on preparations for the summit. At the same time, I take this opportunity to ask you to pass on my warmest wishes to President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak.