President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, friends, allow me to welcome you in Russia.
Cambodia is Russia’s longstanding reliable partner in the Asian region and you are known here as an old and dependable friend of this country. It is therefore a particularly great pleasure to meet with you and welcome you in Sochi.
I am very pleased to have this chance to discuss our bilateral relations here at the Russia-ASEAN summit, and to consider further coordination of our foreign policy efforts, security work, peace maintenance, fighting terrorism and drug trafficking, and, of course, to discuss the development of our trade and economic ties.
I am very happy to see you.
Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen (retranslated): Your Excellency, Mr President, I would like to thank you for this chance to meet during my working visit and this anniversary Russia-ASEAN summit.
Our King Norodom Sihamoni asked me to pass on his deepest respect to you.
I am very pleased to know that you consider Cambodia an old friend and consider me an old friend you can trust. This is a historic meeting because we are now marking the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and Russia for the help that your country has provided to Cambodia over these 60 years.
Despite the complicated and changing situation in the world, and the changes that took place both in Russia and in Cambodia, I would like to stress that we maintain our special relationship. If we had not had Russia’s help there would be no Cambodia today.
You helped us to liberate our country from Pol Pot’s regime. Without help from the Soviet Union and Russia, we would not have been able to extricate ourselves from that difficult situation. Russia’s assistance to Cambodia has helped us to live and develop.
Our relations have reached a new level now. Last year, Mr Medvedev visited Cambodia and we signed 11 agreements. Recently, we signed another eight agreements. The Minister of Communications and Mass Media has already visited Cambodia twice. The agreements we have signed cover a broad range of areas, and I think that we should continue to expand our cooperation.
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