President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, I would like to warmly welcome you to the Kremlin. I want to say that this is the first visit of a Lebanese head of state to our country. It reflects the level of interaction between our two countries, the state of our political dialogue, as well as our hope that we can continue to build up trade, economic and cultural relations with Lebanon, an independent, successful and developing nation. We also hope that Lebanon can overcome the difficulties it has been afflicted with for a number of years.
You and I just discussed various foreign policy issues, a Middle East settlement, and a number of other things that characterize our cooperation. And now in an expanded format I think we can talk about economic cooperation, strengthening the legal framework of our countries' relations and, of course, share other impressions.
The political process currently underway in Lebanon has, in my opinion, already achieved very good results, which are certainly in the interests of Lebanese society. And I wish you, Mr President, and your colleagues every success in this difficult but very important process for your nation.
Once again I welcome you to Moscow.
President of Lebanon Michel Sleiman (as translated from Russian): First of all, Mr President, I want to thank you sincerely for your kind invitation to visit Moscow, the capital of great Russia.
Over centuries Russia has supported our country and been with us during all the difficult moments that Lebanon has lived through.
I would like to express my hope that Russia will continue to be on Lebanon's side – though I have no doubt about this – and help resolve the crucial problems that are currently facing our nation. This is the primary objective of my current visit to Russia.
The second objective of my visit is related to the need to develop and improve our bilateral relations in cultural, economic, trade and other spheres.
My third task during this visit is to coordinate our positions with Russia's on all the issues presently affecting Lebanon, currently a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations. Russia, as we know, is a permanent member of that body. We see this as the realization of Lebanon's right, similar to that of any other country, to take part in solving international problems currently facing the global community.
As for two of the goals I just mentioned, we already talked about them in some detail during our talks in a restricted format. Now, if you don't mind, I would suggest focusing on various aspects of our bilateral relations.