Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon and good evening, Ms President. I am very glad to see you in Moscow.

I do not need to speak about the importance of our bilateral relations. The volume of our trade is being restored, it is large enough now. And we don’t have any problems that we have been unable to solve in recent years. Nevertheless, there are always some questions to discuss. And today we will certainly discuss all these issues. In general, I would like to say that we are satisfied with the development of Russian-Finnish relations.

In addition to maintaining a high level of trade we have managed to launch major projects, including in infrastructure. And we will certainly talk about this today.

I am very glad to see you. Welcome!

Tarja Halonen (as translated): I am also very glad that we have the opportunity to talk and have dinner together. Today’s negotiations between both our ministers and presidents were successful. However, we are interested in the future. And we are very interested in Russia’s plans for modernisation. And not only that, but also in globalisation, global issues and sustainable development. These are the subjects that we discussed earlier and that we can discuss again now. We never have enough time to talk.

Vladimir Putin: We’ll take our time today and discuss these things in greater detail.