President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President,
I am glad to have the opportunity to meet with you and discuss the prospects of Russian-Austrian dialogue.
Our meeting is taking place, as they say, in the sidelines of the meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Nevertheless, I consider it important to meet and lay out certain points required for the harmonious development of our relations.
Today we heard a great many interesting speeches from various state leaders. And I think that it is very good to have a forum such as the United Nations, even though resolving a number of issues still requires bilateral contacts.
Relations between our countries are strong, positive and developing in all directions, although naturally the crisis could not but have an impact on our contacts and relationship – our bilateral trade has fallen by 40 percent.
So I think our task is to make this trend reverse as quickly as possible. I hope that we will be able to discuss this subject.
Once again I would like to welcome you.
President of Austria Heinz Fischer (as translated into Russian): Thank you, Mr President, for your very kind words.
Indeed, they reflect the good quality and friendly nature of our relationship. After all, our relations have been developing in this way for many, many years. And proof of this is the fact that I have known the person who is translating our meeting today for more than twenty-five years.
Dmitry Medvedev: This means a lot.
Heinz Fischer: I think that with regard to our bilateral relations, we always have the opportunity to find appropriate solutions very quickly and pragmatically.
Indeed, our relations have developed very successfully in recent years and I want to point out that, in recent years, these positive developments and this pragmatic approach have allowed us to address a number of issues that are important to us.
You already talked about economic relations between our countries. Indeed, as it happens the crisis has affected our countries as well. Nevertheless, our economic cooperation is developing and our economic ties remain strong.
One sign of this is our partnership in the energy sector. It is very stable. And I am deeply convinced that this will remain the case in the future, that in the future we will be able to rely on each other both with regards to the accurate implementation of contracts, and in all matters relating to the sustainability of our cooperation.