President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President,
I am very glad to meet you again. I greet you and welcome our Chinese colleagues.
We have met many times this year. That's good – it means that our relations are developing and that we have things to discuss. This means that almost all questions of Russian-Chinese cooperation remain in the purview of the leaders of our two countries. Your visit to Russia in June this year went very well. During that state visit, you and I discussed all the issues that have arisen between our two countries and reached real agreements. Not so long ago we met in the United States and agreed to implement a cooperation programme between Russia’s regions in the Far East and eastern Siberia and northeast China. I have already given all the orders for the implementation of these agreements.
Recently, our Prime Minister was in China and was very well received. And now the Year of Russian Language in China is coming to an end – next year is the year of Chinese language in Russia. So our relations are very dense and will, I hope, remain so. Once again I am pleased to welcome you.
President of China Hu Jintao (as translated into Russian): Mr President, I am also delighted to meet with you again. This is our fourth meeting this year; each one was very productive and acted like an important catalyst for developing Chinese-Russian relations, maintaining and developing cooperation in all fields.
Last month the 14th regular meeting between our heads of government was held in Beijing; there parties reached a number of new agreements that contributed to the new development of Chinese-Russian cooperation in trade, economic, energy and investment spheres, and in new high-tech fields as well.
As you already pointed out, all events within the Year of Russian Language in China are being completed with full success. In the very near future the 4th round of consultations between China and Russia on strategic security issues will take place in our capital, and I am sure that those consultations will have positive results.
In order to further develop our relations in this new situation, I propose that next year we focus all our attention on the following endeavours. First of all, I propose to take full advantage of high-level meetings and forums, exchange views in a timely fashion, and coordinate our positions on all critical issues that hold a common interest for us.
Next year you, Mr President, will visit China. This will be an important event in our bilateral relations. Next year, our Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will come to Russia for a visit.
We will also have many opportunities to meet on the sidelines of multilateral events.
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