Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Wen, dear friends and colleagues,

I am very glad to be meeting with you once again on the fields of work of the SCO to discuss our bilateral issues. All of us in Russia are very pleased that our high-level contacts are so intensive. It's been less than a month since we met in Beijing and now you are here in St Petersburg, in Russia. Last year our commodity turnover amounted to 59 billion, and this year it reached 53 billion during the first eight months, and will probably reach 80 billion or more over the entire year. Thus we are rapidly approaching the level of 100 billion and 200 billion as we had planned.

And I am particularly happy to note that our previous decisions on trading of the rouble and yuan have been developing; the first exchange trade has already taken place. Amid the well-known problems in global finances, this calculation system improves stability in our economic relations, of course. There are many other issues for us to discuss as well.

Wen Jiabao (as interpreted): Thank you very much, Mr Putin, for the opportunity to meet with you, in spite of your busy schedule. I know that following our meeting you will be flying off on a business trip, and so I thank you again for the chance to meet. Meeting with you twice in one month speaks to the high level of mutual confidence that exists between the Chinese and Russian leadership.

Today we are witnessing considerable advances in the development not only of the friendship and mutual political confidence between our nations, but also in the development of mutually advantageous economic cooperation between our countries. You have just cited convincing statistics concerning commodity turnover growth between our countries. I think this is the clearest proof of the quality of the current conditions and of the excellent prospects for our cooperation. I am deeply convinced that the development of the work or cooperation between our countries not only contains great potential, but also a huge space for the further growth of the qualitative indicators of our cooperation in trade.