Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Dmitry Medvedev: I warmly welcome you, Mr Myasnikovich. I am glad of the opportunity to discuss current developments with you by taking advantage of the format of our meeting – the meeting of the CIS Heads of Government Council. On the subject of Russian-Belarusian relations, they are, in my view, going through very good times. They have gone through different times, but now they are very good because, apart from political understanding on all issues, quite impressive achievements have been recorded in the economy. I looked up the figures – trade turnover is growing, it reached $40 billion last year. This is the result of what our two states and our two governments have done, naturally also the enterprises and businessmen of our two countries, and the result of the Customs Union, because it has had a clear effect on our common successes. So I am looking to the future with optimism. I would like now to discuss some current matters with you and at the same time take advantage of the opportunity and invite you once more to visit St Petersburg on June 15 in order to talk about trade and economic relations and relations within the format of the Customs Union.
Mikhail Myasnikovich: Thank you very much for this meeting. I wholeheartedly want to congratulate you on your high appointments both in the party leadership…
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you.
Mikhail Myasnikovich: …and in the Government. I have received your invitation to St Petersburg with its warm postscript. Many thanks, we will definitely come. And the agenda, I believe, will be very much to the point because we are in favour of healthy competition and so on, but we need to synchronise our industrial policy to make progress. I would like to convey greetings from Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko …
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much.
Mikhail Myasnikovich: He described in detail and with much warmth the meetings he had in Moscow …
Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, we also met outside the summit and had very good talks.
Mikhail Myasnikovich: Yes, yes. The appropriate directives have been issued. I believe we could thrash out many of the issues either today or in St Petersburg, especially since we have a meeting on Friday. We are all excited preparing for the meeting with Vladimir Putin, who will be visiting us.
Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, this is also an important event in the history of our relations because it is Belarus that Vladimir Putin has chosen to make his first visit as President. Another landmark event!
Mikhail Myasnikovich: Yes, it’s good that our trade and economic relations are coming together. There was a certain slump in trade, but now Russia accounts for about 50% of trade, 49.5% of trade turnover is with Russian companies. What is remarkable about that is that it is based on a new foundation. This is no longer the kind of policy directive we used to criticise.
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Myasnikovich, let’s begin our discussions.