Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
We are happy to welcome Giuseppe Conte,
who is in Russia on an official visit for the first time.
The Prime Minister and I have had substantive and quite productive
talks involving almost the entire range,
the entire spectrum of Russian-Italian cooperation.
We have also held a meeting with the heads of leading Italian companies
that operate in the Russian market,
and we launched the new motor plant in Chelyabinsk via videoconference.
The interdepartmental and commercial agreements that have just been
signed are evidence of our mutual commitment to promoting
bilateral ties in various areas.
In this context, I would like to stress that Italy is a very important
economic partner, and today Mr Conte and I have focused mostly
on cooperation in trade and investment.
In 2017 bilateral trade grew by more than 20 percent reaching $24
billion, with another 15 percent added in January–August of this year.
Mutual investment is more than $7.5 billion
and, according to the data from the first quarter of this year
Italian investment in Russia grew more than $1 billion
to reach $4.8 billion.
The effective work of the Russian-Italian Council on Economic
Cooperation and Industrial and Financial Cooperation has been widely
helpful in reaching these figures.
The next meeting of the Council will take place in Italy in December.
Of course, we have had a detailed discussion of cooperation
prospects in energy. Russia is a large supplier of natural gas to Italy
covering 35 percent of the demand.
In addition, our countries are carrying out a range
of joint energy projects.
Russian and Italian companies are developing gas fields and are
involved in the production and supply of liquefied natural gas.
We are studying the possibility of building main pipelines via
the southern route to supply Russian gas to Europe.
Italian corporations are assisting us in upgrading our
electric power industry.
ENEL is taking part in modernising Russian electricity
grids and building wind farms in Russia.
Mutually beneficial industrial cooperation is developing through
the joint efforts of the two countries as well.
Pirelli and Rostec – you just saw the documents being signed –
cooperated in the technological renovation of the Kirov
and Voronezh tyre plants.
With the participation of our partners from Italy,
the construction of a large ammonia manufacturing facility is nearing
completion in Leningrad Region;
and, the construction of the Amur Gas Processing Plant.
Italian companies are part of infrastructure projects in Russia.
In St Petersburg, the modern Western High-Speed Diameter Motorway
and Pulkovo Airport project are complete.
It is important that strong cooperation is underway in the scientific
and technical sphere.
The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Foundation for Basic
Research closely cooperate with Italian researchers.
Russia's Kurchatov Institute and Italy's National Research Council are
working together on innovative projects in thermonuclear fusion
and on the construction of the Ignitor fusion reactor.
Italians are also involved in a number of hi-tech projects
at the Skolkovo Innovation Center.
Successful cooperation can also be seen in manned space activity.
Currently, preparations are taking place to send an Italian citizen
to the International Space Station.
We have agreed with the Prime Minister to take every effort to expand
inter-regional connections.
Russian and Italian regions are implementing over 40 joint agreements.
Last year, Days of Moscow were held in several Italian cities.
A presentation of the investment potential took place
in the Kaluga Region.
Of course, I must mention bilateral interaction in the cultural sphere.
This year, events are ongoing in Italy as part of the Russian Seasons
festival, and they are enjoying great success,
including tours by music groups, ballet and theatre companies,
as well as festivals and film screenings.
By the way, Mr Conte and I have just watched scenes from a film
by Andrey Konchalovsky about the great sculptor and painter
Michelangelo Buonarroti.
This is an exceptional collaborative work by Russian and Italian
filmmakers, which will undoubtedly spark interest not only in Russia
but also in Italy and, I am sure, in other countries.
Large Russian museums regularly host Italian art exhibitions.
Currently, there is an exhibition of 18th century Venetian paintings
at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
We understand that Mr Conte intends to visit it.
I would also like to mention that Italy will take part in the 7th
St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum on November 15–17
as a guest country.
Reciprocal tourism is growing.
In the first six months of the year,
20 percent more Russians visited Italy and the number
of Italians going to Russia is increasing.
When we discussed current issues on the international and regional
agendas, we said that the views of Russia and Italy on many
matters were close.
Russia supports Italy’s efforts topromote a Libyan settlement,
in particular, the initiative to hold an international conference
on Libya in Palermo on November 12–13.
Mr Prime Minister and I discussed this in detail today.
Unfortunately, the situation in Libya remains critical.
It is important to prevent an escalation of the crisis and find ways
to restore Libya’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
We exchanged opinions on the situation in Syria.
We informed Mr Conte of the steps Russia is taking,
including in the Astana framework,
to promote a political settlement and to step up inter-Syrian talks.
We also discussed the possibility of joining the world community’s
efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to that
long-suffering country.
Restoration of Syria’s economy will create favourable conditions
for the refugees to return and in this way will reduce the migration
load on the European countries and Syria’s neighbours.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Mr Giuseppe Conte,
the Italian Prime Minister, and all our Italian colleagues and friends
for these useful and constructive talks.
I am convinced that the agreements we reached today will contribute
to further developing our extensive Russian-Italian cooperation.
Thank you for your attention.
I am truly happy to be here on my first visit to Moscow
as the President of the Italian Council of Ministers.
I would also like to thank President Putin for the warm welcome
and the fruitful time we spent together.
It was an opportunity to review the cooperation between Russia
and Italy and improve it in culture,
trade and the social sphere.
It was a very positive and constructive meeting.
Mr President and I stated a good trend in our relations
and worked on their future prospects.
As for the international perspective,
we are facing a huge number of challenges for the security
and development of Italy and Europe,
and we believe that it is crucially important to discuss these issues
with such a strategic partner as the Russian Federation.
We need Russia to develop solutions to the main international crises;
I have been saying this since the beginning of my term.
It should be sustainable development and first of all,
sustainable political decisions.
I sincerely believe in Moscow’s constructive approach.
As he already mentioned, Mr President and I touched upon
the Libyan issue. The strengthening of the country’s institutes,
as well as its economic and social development can only be achieved
through an inclusive dialogue and reconciliation,
which should be led by the UN and implemented by the Libyan
people themselves.
It is essential that the international community show
solidarity and support for the UN.
On November 12–13, Italy plans to hold a conference on Libya
in Palermo. We invited all Libyan parties that are directly involved,
as well as the main partners in the region and on the global stage.
Russia’s participation is crucially important as it can ensure progress
towards stabilisation in Libya.
I shared my thoughts with Mr President and received his full support.
Therefore, Moscow will make a significant contribution
to this conference.
We also exchanged views on the developments in Syria.
We support the Geneva process and the actions of the United Nations
to bring about stability and reconciliation of the parties,
which is necessary and must be achieved through a peaceful, political,
inclusive and sustainable solution.
It is also necessary to involve all the main players in the region
and the world, and Russia holds a fundamentally important
place among them.
We very much appreciate Moscow’s role in the demilitarisation of Idlib.
Due to its efforts, it was possible to avoid a humanitarian crisis
and a dangerous military escalation.
We hope that efforts will be made to develop a long-term solution.
We also spoke about the Ukrainian crisis,
which remains a pivotal issue and needs to be resolved.
This crisis has put the foundations of relations between the European
Union and Russia into question.
If we do not resolve this crisis, we risk losing the trust,
cooperation and rules developed in the 25 years of our dialogue.
Italy will facilitate this dialogue because all of Europe needs
a security framework that all the main actors will share.
There is no alternative to the Minsk Agreements.
Italy fully supports the Normandy Four and the OSCE,
in which Italy is currently presiding.
As for the relations between Italy and Russia,
Mr President already mentioned several issues.
We also confirmed the excellent state of our bilateral relations.
Despite the persisting conditions that resulted in the EU sanctions
in this sensitive time for the global economy,
I consider it right to maintain economic ties between Italy and Russia,
in particular, to support the activity of numerous Italian companies
that work in Russia in the interests of both our countries.
In addition, I repeatedly said and want to confirm again here that
sanctions have never been a goal for Italy;
they are a tool that must be abandoned as soon as possible
because dialogue is the best solution.
Italy is a large industrial country and it should not be
afraid of globalisation.
On the contrary, it should be able to use the amazing
opportunities it offers.
Russia ranks fifth in terms of our exports,
excluding the EU. There is a huge number of Italian companies, large,
medium and small, operating in Russia.
In 2017, our exports finally began to grow and in the first nine months
of 2018, this trend persisted, so we believe that it can
grow even further.
Italian companies show a growing interest in the Russian market.
The readiness to improve industrial cooperation is also proved
by the signing of numerous agreements between Italian and Russian
companies, which Mr President and I attended with great enthusiasm.
In addition, we have wonderful cooperation in culture and science,
and Mr President mentioned this as well.
The popularity of the Italian language in Russia is huge.
Russia has 50 schools that teach Italian.
There are many formats of cooperation between research centres
and universities, especially in physics and medicine,
and I strongly hope that these relations between Italy
and Russia will continue to develop.
Good evening. I have two questions.
The first is for Prime Minister Conte because you hope that Russia will
return to the Group of 7, or to be more exact,
it should become the Group of 8 again.
Considering the evident very good relations between Russia and Italy,
how much is the Italian Government prepared to oppose the tacit
extension of economic sanctions against Russia from the European Union?
Do you mean to impose a veto?
And a question for President Putin,
if I may. Considering that Russia is already treated as a principal
actor in solving large international crises, as I far as understand,
you have received an invitation to personally take part
in the conference on Libya in Palermo.
Are you going there? And specifically,
what is Moscow’s vision of a settlement of the Libyan crisis?
First, I will answer your question.
It is evident that, as I said, the Ukrainian crisis is a problem that
created a bottleneck and that slowed and even blocked a dialogue that
had been developing for 25 years. We cannot accept this.
We need to overcome this by all means. It has lasted too long.
You ask about a veto.
Italy believes that productive work means persuading our European
partners to move in one direction.
This is why we would prefer not to make a decision now.
We will make it in due time.
Italy is very ambitious, and we would like to persuade our partners
that the best way to find a solution is through dialogue.
Thank you for the first part of the question.
In appreciation of this, I will do my best to answer your
second question in detail.
I mentioned that we support Italy’s efforts to settle
the crisis in Libya. As you know, it was manmade,
and not by Russia. Still, we support everything Italy is
doing in this respect.
I have already said and will repeat: I believe that our approach fully
coincides with Italy’s approach,
to the effect that ultimately the Libyan people themselves
should solve internal Libyan problems.
For our part, we can only provide assistance and act as guarantors.
We hope for success at the scheduled conference in Palermo
and at the moment I do not know if I will be able to take
part in it personally.
In any case, Russia will definitely be represented at a very high level.
I have a question on the INF Treaty,
the subject being discussed these past few days not only in our country
and in the US, but also in Europe.
Due to the specifics of these arms –
intermediate and short-range missiles –
the Europeans could become hostages to the US if Washington withdraws
from the treaty, as my colleague said yesterday.
It is not clear yet if Washington is withdrawing or is revising
the format of this document, however, whatever the case,
if Trump and his administration move beyond words,
what steps will you take? This question is addressed to both leaders.
This problem did not come up yesterday or even three days ago when
the US President announced it.
It came up earlier, and as you might have noticed, and we did notice,
the United States Congress had already earmarked expenses for R&D
on intermediate and short-range missiles.
This means the decision has been taken.
Once research and development is underway –
and they do not do it so it can sit on the shelf and collect dust,
it means that the next step will also be made.
The budget was passed, the Congress approved it while a political
statement was made several days ago.
Yes, indeed, there are certain questions regarding progress in missile
technology and the limitations undertaken only by the United States
and the Soviet Union, now the Russian Federation.
However, what worries us is that the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty has been scrapped.
Now we are talking about the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
And the future of a new START Treaty on limiting strategic
offensive arms is unclear.
If all that is scrapped, then nothing will remain to limit arms growth.
The situation will then become very dangerous,
in my view. There will be nothing left but an arms race.
Now regarding Europe.
Of course, the key question, if the United States withdraws from
the INF Treaty, the main question is what will they do with
any new missiles?
If they deploy them in Europe, we will naturally have to respond
symmetrically, and the European countries that agree to this,
if it goes as far as that, must realise that they will put their own
territory at risk of a retaliatory strike.
This is an obvious situation. We will go back to Pershings in Europe.
I actually do not understand why Europe should be brought to such
a high degree of risk? I see no reasons for that, but let me reiterate,
this not our choice, we are not pursuing this.
In answer to your question as to whether we will be able to respond –
yes, we will, and this will happen very quickly and efficiently.
What is the formal pretext for our partners’ withdrawal from the INF
Treaty? Accusations that we are allegedly violating it.
However, as usual, no evidence of this is produced,
whereas the United States has already violated it by deploying Aegis
anti-missile defense launchers in Romania,
by placing them on land, on the territory.
What have they done? The Aegis launchers can be used for offensive
missiles, not anti-missiles.
They only need to update the software and that’s it.
This can be done in hours.
We will not even be able to guess what is happening,
we will not be able to see it from the outside.
The US has already violated the treaty.
How about unmanned aircraft? This is in essence also a direct
violation. Drones are no different than intermediate and short-range
missiles in this respect.
This is an old trick, when nobody shouts ‘Stop thief!’ louder than
the thieves do, but it will not work in this case.
We are carefully analysing everything that is going on in real life.
But let me repeat, we are ready to work on this with our US partners
without any hysterics.
What matters is what will follow, which decision will be taken.
I hope we will be able to talk about all these issues with
the President of the United State at least on the sidelines
of the meetings in Paris on November 11.
I would like to add that this is a matter of concern for Italy as well,
since we are talking about intermediate-range missiles.
For this reason, we cannot remain indifferent to the fact that this
treaty may be cancelled.
I told Mr Putin that I was very young at the time of Pershing missiles,
and have no desire whatsoever to return to a time that we
have managed to leave behind us.
I will also inform President Trump during a telephone conversation that
Italy will do everything it takes, as it usually does,
to make sure that dialogue remains possible on this matter.
We must focus on other cooperation opportunities and we must avoid any
disruptions that would be a concern for everyone.
Good afternoon. President Putin,
what do you think about the possibility for Russia to invest in Italy’s
government bonds, maybe using funds from the National Welfare Fund?
And Prime Minister, a question for you.
I would like to ask you whether there might be misgivings in Washington
or Brussels should Russia decide to invest in Italy’s securities.
In general, could this help stop the erosion of trust,
improve bond spread and stop capital outflow from Italy?
We are aware of the current controversy between the Italian Government
and the European Commission.
In our view, this results from a difference in approaches to choosing
the most effective way of ensuring economic growth and performance.
This dispute has been going on for a long time now,
and not just between Italy and the European Commission,
but also on the expert level too.
What is better: fiscal relief or restrictions designed
to suppress inflation?
In this case, this is none of our business.
We are not going to interfere, so I will refrain from making even
the slightest allusion regarding this matter.
Despite all these complicated developments,
we are aware of the debt burden together with the other
challenges. We are quite aware of all this.
Nevertheless, I do believe that the Italian economy has a solid
foundation, and overall we have trust in what the Italian
Government is doing. We have no doubt that these matters will be
resolved in one way or another.
Russia does not intend to create any political limitations
in operating its National Welfare Fund.
Of course, we are looking for various new investment options,
since our funds are increasing quite rapidly.
I think that our reserves are growing by seven or eight billion dollars
per month, and I am not even talking about the Central Bank’s currency
reserves that have reached 460 billion dollars.
However, this is a question for economic actors.
Let me repeat that there are no political restrictions here.
As for the effect, in any case,
it is always positive when an investor shows confidence
in sovereign bond issuers.
Let me reiterate that we did not discuss these matters today,
and Mr Prime Minister did not raise these questions during
the discussions that we had today.
I would also like to answer this question.
This question is also relevant for me. Let me be absolutely clear.
Asking President Putin to buy Italian bonds was not
the purpose of my visit here.
The Italian economy is on a stable footing,
as Mr President has said.
However, while this is recognised abroad,
not everyone in Italy would agree with this assessment.
If the Central Bank of Russia or the National Welfare Fund take
a decision of this kind, it will mean that they view
the investment as a good deal. This is all I have to say about it.
Good evening.
Since energy was discussed during the talks, as you have said,
could you tell us whether the Nord Stream 2 project was mentioned
considering the differences that exist in Europe regarding
its implementation?
And concerning the southern pipeline,
what practical steps could be taken so that Italy receives Russian gas
across the Black Sea and possibly joins projects to develop the gas
transportation system in southern Europe where gas will be
delivered via Turkish Stream?
In this sphere, everything is possible.
As you know, hydrocarbon exports, including both gas and oil,
from Russia to Europe are growing.
We are active in other sectors as well,
including alternative energy sources.
Italian companies are involved in projects to build wind farms,
as well as develop Russia’s power grids into what is
referred to as smart grids.
This goes to say that energy cooperation between our countries covers
a wide range of initiatives and sectors.
As for the specific question of infrastructure development,
we are considering all possible options,
including connecting Italy to various branches of the Turkish Stream,
which could go through Bulgaria,
or even through Serbia or Hungary or Greece,
as well as stepping up ties in the context of increasing deliveries
through Nord Stream 2, though we did not discuss Nord
Stream 2 at this meeting.
Let me inform you, just to make sure that you all remember this,
that pipelines from Baumgarten,
where Russian gas will be delivered by Nord Stream 2,
to Italy is a Russian-Italian joint venture.
In this sense, Italy must be interested in the Nord Stream 2 project.
Let me reiterate that we are looking at all possible options.
I would like to stress once again that they are not designed to be
detrimental to the interests of any third parties,
and do not target Ukraine’s interests.
The purpose of the options we are considering is to satisfy the growing
demand of the European energy sector and economies in general
in hydrocarbons in the near future.
It is obvious that there is a growing demand.
It is increasing by the year.
This year, Gazprom will produce and deliver to its European customers
a record-high volume of 200 bcm,
I think. For this reason, it is natural for us to promote these
efforts, and this is what we discussed, broadly speaking.
Thank you. See you soon.