Transcript:
Mykola Azarov: Mr Medvedev, I’m happy to welcome you and members of your delegation. We’ve already exchanged views during this short span of time.
Your pragmatic and constructive approach to resolving all issues linked with the development of our bilateral relations suits us perfectly. I’d like to tell my colleagues and yours that you and I have agreed to review all issues, find solutions on some of them and leave others for further negotiations. However, we can immediately resolve the bulk of the issues on our agenda, which do not require further discussion.
The second important proposal made my Mr Medvedev, which I support, is to establish a commission on settling investment disputes. We must protect Russian investors in Ukraine and Ukrainian investors in Russia. With this aim in mind, we must use the weight of our government leaders and the legal systems and resolve all issues without delay. Therefore, I’d like to emphasise that the beginning of our talks – and this is the first time we are holding the meeting of the interstate commission at this level – inspires us with optimism and hope that we will continue working in this constructive spirit.
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Azarov, my esteemed Ukrainian friends and partners. I also believe that we can resolve the most diverse economic and other issues of our cooperation. The main thing is to have the right spirit.
You’ve just mentioned our agreements, which I can confirm. Indeed, we must move forward as we have agreed during today’s talks, that is, in an absolutely pragmatic direction. There is no abstract cooperation or common friendship. These exist, but they don’t produce results. Interstate friendship and sound strategic partnership are embodied in concrete economic projects, some of which are more successful than others.
We have every chance to further our socio-economic cooperation, all the more so since last year our trade reached the impressive level of $50 billion for the first time in the history of our cooperation. We are not always happy about the structure of trade, and each side has its own queries, but in general the figures are not bad. They’ve been within the same parameters this year, but now we have every change to develop our cooperation.
We have a mechanism for settling disputes and will use it today. I’d like to present our government to you once again with the hope that it will do everything it can to develop neighbourly and strategic relations with Ukraine. Now I suggest we move on to the agenda.
Mykola Azarov: I agree with this proposal. Do members of the government commission have any objections? Let’s move forward.