The transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Filat, colleagues,

I am very pleased to meet with you on the sidelines of the meeting of CIS heads of government and to share views on regional affairs, as well as to discuss bilateral issues and relations within the CIS framework. I believe it is very important and useful to hold bilateral meetings with colleagues as part of such events. They provide a good opportunity to discuss key trade and economic issues and other aspects of our cooperation.     

This is our first meeting in this capacity. Hopefully, we’ll be able to establish a good working relationship and a personal rapport, which is certainly very important for building comprehensive and neighborly relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Moldova.  

Vladimir Filat: Thank you.

Once again, I would like to congratulate you, and I wish you every success in your difficult work.

This year marks 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Moldova and Russia and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the treaty of friendship and cooperation between our countries. We went through difficult times, but we managed to establish neighborly relations for the benefit of our peoples.

What this suggests is that we, as heads of government, should make every effort to improve first of all the quality of our interactions, which in turn will provide an impetus to our economic and cultural cooperation. Personally, I am very optimistic about the future. Hopefully, our relations, especially our personal relationship, will be friendly, which will help us solve the problems we face.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you.

Vladimir Filat: Thank you.