Opening words by meeting participants:

Vladimir Putin: Your Excellency, my honourable colleagues! I am pleased to welcome you to Russia.

It is a real pleasure to have all our supply agreements being observed at the highest level. Even more important is that the sales turnover between our countries grew nearly threefold during the past five years, to be more precise, 2.8 times. In absolute units, this figure could even exceed what we currently have. The following lines of cooperation appear promising: aviation, space, transport infrastructure, agriculture, engineering industries, chemistry, culture and education.

Welcome to Russia once again! I'm sure we will have a fruitful discussion.

Francois Fillon (as interpreted): Thank you very much, Your Excellency!

I'm very happy to see you again after our meeting in Paris, which was very fruitful.

I have two messages for you, and I will voice them immediately. The first is from the Italian Prime Minister, with whom I have just had a conversation. He would like to send his compliments to you. The second is from Nicholas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic. He also sends his compliments and assures his highest esteem to you.

Many changes have taken place since our last meeting. The French President has visited Russia twice, if I recall correctly. He met with you and he is very pleased that the agreements made are being fulfilled.

We would like this meeting to take place on the specified date, as we put great weight upon strengthening the partnership between the EU, especially France, and Russia.

Our financial and economic relations are developing very well thanks to rapid economic growth in the Russian Federation. There are also strategic political reasons for this. Russia, as well as the EU, is and will be very important for global stability. Also, the more we negotiate, the higher the mutual trust will be, and the closer the economic ties, the more peace and stability there will be in the world.

Vladimir Putin: I absolutely agree.

You have mentioned the two recent visits by the French President to Russia. Mr Sarkozy has showed persistence and diplomatic skill and helped a lot to settle the crisis in the South Caucasus.

You have also mentioned certain agreements that were reached. We are and will continue to keep them. We wouldn't have signed them if we had regarded them as unacceptable.

I have just had a telephone conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who, in turn, sends his compliments to you and to the French President. We hope that not only Russia, but also our European partners, with great responsibility resting with France as the presiding country, will move towards implementation of agreements which had been reached thanks in large part to the President of France.

We have a lot of projects for bilateral cooperation. We will be glad to discuss virtually every issue.