***
President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao,
I am pleased to see you again. This meeting with you reflects the sustained and productive dialogue that the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China are conducting. I met just a few days ago with President Hu Jintao during the G20 and APEC summits, and now we have just had this intergovernmental meeting too, all of which helps to strengthen the excellent development we are already seeing in our bilateral ties.
My colleagues in the government have told me that important intergovernmental agreements and agreements between companies have just been signed, reflecting the intensive pace of our economic relations. I am very pleased to hear this, all the more so as it comes on top of the big package of agreements, including strategic agreements, that we signed during my official visit to Beijing in September and subsequent trip to Shanghai to visit the 2010 World Expo. I want to congratulate you on the outstanding organisation of the World Expo in Shanghai. It is a major event, a global event, and it has been beautifully done, really quite exceptional.
I hope that we will have the chance to discuss a number of economic matters today and talk about some foreign policy issues too.
Premier of the State Council of the People’S Republic of China Wen Jiabao (retranslated): Mr President,
It is a great pleasure to see you again. You rightly noted that the intensive contacts between the Chinese and Russian leaderships reflect the level of political and strategic cooperation our countries have achieved.
My meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the fifteenth in the regular meetings between our countries’ heads of government, has produced great results. We signed a large number of agreements on cooperation in the economy, finances, transport, customs matters, and humanitarian ties. This indicates that our trade and economic cooperation has reached a qualitatively new level.
I want to tell you that this morning our businesspeople signed 13 contracts for a total figure of $8.6 billion. In total, 19 documents and contracts were signed during and after my meeting with the prime minister. But even more important is the fact that the political leadership in China and Russia have concluded that our relations have a solid, stable and strategic character, and this is the main thing.
<…>