Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues, we welcome the opportunity to continue the Russian-Italian dialogue, which, on the whole, it should be admitted, has never been disrupted. Due to various reasons and the current economic difficulties in Europe today, we probably don’t meet as often as we used to, but right now it’s high time to compare our positions, and discuss our affairs and achievements and even to sum up specific results because several very important documents will be signed during your visit, Mr Prime Minister.

On the whole, we can be quite happy with the development of our trade and economic relations. These relations have been expanding recently, despite problems in the global economy and the European economy, and we can expect bilateral trade turnover to return to 2008, pre-crisis levels this year. Speaking of personal relations, the situation here is pretty fantastic overall. We have held several major events, and I hope this situation will continue in the future. I would like to warmly welcome you and wish you every success.

Mario Monti (Via interpreter): Mr Prime Minister, I would like to thank you for your welcoming speech. I would like to say that you and I have already met prior to our current meeting here in Moscow. Our meeting today will enable us to continue building on the already intensive political and economic ties between Italy and the Russian Federation. As you know, I will continue my visit, and today I will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Prime Minister, as you have already said, economic relations between our two countries have become very strong. We hope that they will become even stronger, especially now that Russia has joined the World Trade Organisation.

As you know, we are now living through a difficult economic crisis and therefore Italy’s main priority is to rectify this difficult situation and to strengthen the state budget. We believe that an important step in this direction will be the strengthening of our economic and multilateral relations with our strategic partners, including the Russian Federation. Our relations have always evolved on the basis of close economic and financial ties, and they also include cooperation between our military and civil industries. Evidence of their further expansion and strengthening will be the signing of official documents and agreements today. And we hope that relations in such traditional areas of cooperation as culture will also continue. We hope that this success will culminate with events which are considered very important for Russia and Italy, and which will be held during intergovernmental consultations in Rome in October. The next step in strengthening this process will be the 13^th meeting of the Italy-Russia Economic, Industrial and Financial Economic Cooperation Council, to be held in Russia.

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After their meeting, the prime ministers of Russia and Italy attended the signing of the following documents:

1. An agreement between Rosneft and Italy’s Eni on financing geological exploration of the Central Barentsevsky, Fedynsky and West Chernomorsky blocks;

2. A memorandum of understanding between Norilsk Nickel and Italy’s Techint;

3. An agreement on strengthening the strategic partnership between Russian Post, SELEX Elsag and Poste Italiane;

4. A loan agreement between Bank VTB and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti for a 276 million euro loan to be disbursed by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, and guaranteed by the Italian State Insurance Agency SACE;

5. An agreement between Gazprombank and Intesa San Paolo on the establishment of a joint direct investment fund to support Russian and Italian businesses in Russia and the EU;

6. Protocol of intent between Northern Caucasus Resorts and Rizzani de Eccher.