President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Madam State Counsellor, colleagues. I am very pleased to see you, and I am happy to have this opportunity to discuss things at the Beijing summit.
Myanmar is Russia’s long-time and reliable partner in Southeast Asia. Last year, we marked the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. We are committed to the further development of political dialogue and the continuation of inter-parliamentary exchanges. Our ministries of foreign affairs also have well-established contacts.
Although quite modest in absolute terms, our mutual trade is growing rapidly, having gained more than 50 percent last year.
There are regional issues, of course, which need to be focused on.
I am glad to have the opportunity to meet with you and talk about all these issues.
State Counsellor of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi: We are also very glad to have this opportunity to meet. We tried to meet with you in Singapore, but it was not possible before. Of course, we have been friends with Russia for a long time, and we value this friendship and we also appreciate the support that you have given us on the international arena. Your ambassador has done very much to promote friendship between our two countries, I think primarily because of his fluent Myanmar language, which has impressed our people a lot and made him very popular. And we look forward to expanding our relations with Russia.