Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Filat, colleagues, I am very glad to see you in St Petersburg. It’s been almost ten years since Moldova and Russia signed the Agreement on Friendship and Cooperation. There have been problems along the way, but, thankfully, we have resolved them in one way or another. I hope that we will continue to find mutually acceptable solutions for all issues of mutual interest. Again, I am very glad to see you in St Petersburg. We will work with our colleagues at the large CIS event, and we will use this occasion to discuss our bilateral problems and issues. Welcome!

Vladimir Filat: Thank you, Mr Putin. Thank you for the opportunity to talk and share views about our relations.

As you noted, it will soon be ten years since we signed the basic agreement, which clearly defines the strategic relations between our countries. I have been preparing for this meeting and, honestly, I have been looking at it from the perspective of all the positive things that have happened in our relations recently.

Moreover, next year it will be 20 years since our countries established diplomatic relations as independent states. Of course, a lot of good things have been done. In this regard, I would like to point out that in September, our country quite successfully held the Days of Russian Culture, and this time not only in Chisinau. Next year, we plan to hold the Days of Moldovan Culture in Russia. This is very important.

As to our economic relations, I am glad to say that trade is growing, both exports and imports are going up.

Russia remains our no. 1 economic partner. Of course, many problems that we faced and that we discussed at our meetings, Mr Putin, have been resolved. There are still some problems that need to be solved from our side, as I told you during our first meeting. But there is spirit of openness and a pragmatic approach, and we will continue doing what it takes to make these relations not just theoretical but beneficial for people and for the economy.

As you know, talks on the signing of a gas supply agreement are going well. The agreement expires at the end of the year, and we hope to have everything ready by mid November. We have already held three rounds of talks in order not to leave it till the last minute. What is important for us here is, of course, the duration of the agreement for the sake of predictability, and also the terms of supply and payment – in other words, all the technical issues – so that we can receive gas and the supplier can receive money for his gas. What we came to understand long ago is what you get for free will soon cost you.

I would like to thank you, Mr Putin, in particular for your assistance and for the work Russia has done to resume talks in the official “five plus two” format. I think it is important that this took place in Moscow: this is yet another sign of the openness of your country’s intentions, and we are grateful for that. We haven’t held these talks for six years. We need to talk. If you want to resolve a problem, you need to talk about it in the proper format. So I want to say thank you. As to the economic situation in our country…

Vladimir Putin: How is your harvest this year?

Vladimir Filat: The harvest is good. We managed to finish 2009 quite successfully, though it was not easy and we had to make cuts. But this was necessary in order to achieve good results in 2010. We ran a deficit of 1.4%  and grew at 6.9%. In the first six months, growth was 7.5% and the deficit was 0.9%. You know what it takes to maintain such a deficit.

Of course, this is not the final result; it is just a trend and the beginning at that. There is the reform and economic relations between regions. We need to bring order to social benefits – this is what needs to be done.

We, of course, hope that this year’s good harvest… By the way, we have very good grapes this year, because it was sunny and it didn’t rain for about 30 days when the grapes were ripening. When His Holiness Patriarch Kirill arrived (we met with him and he spent three days in Moldova), it began raining.

Vladimir Putin: He told me.

Vladimir Filat: Yes. We hope that the wine we will make will reach consumers.

Vladimir Putin: Including Russian consumers.