13 november 2012

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev holds talks with Prime Minister of Slovenia Janez Janša

Participants:

Transcript of the beginning of the talks:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, I would like to cordially welcome you. We met fairly recently in Laos. However, we discussed somewhat different issues there, and now we are meeting in Moscow. Your working visit is a good pretext. You have come here to discuss the current state of Russian-Slovenian relations and to talk about major projects, and to adopt various decisions, including the planned signing of documents on the South Stream project.

And of course, I would like to note that overall Russian-Slovenian relations are developing quite well. The economic side also continues to expand. Certainly, there is always an opportunity to discuss new directions or investment opportunities. I am open to this. Generally, the level of bilateral trade and economic relations, as well as cultural relations, is quite good. So, we have a lot of current and future issues to discuss. Once again, I want to cordially welcome you.

Janez Janša (Via interpreter): Mr Prime Minister. I am also very happy that we are able to meet so soon after our Laos meeting. This is one of those visits, which confirm that good-neighbourly cooperation exists between our countries. An economic delegation accompanies me, yesterday and today, and the economy is the foundation of our systems.

Over the 20 years, which have passed since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations and since Slovenia gained independence, we can say that our bilateral cooperation has turned into a strategic partnership.  

Dmitry Medvedev: That’s right.

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A positive final investment decision for the Slovenian section of the South Stream gas pipeline was signed in the presence of Dmitry Medvedev and Janez Janša after the talks.

In addition, top executives from Gazprom and Slovenia’s Comita have signed founding documents, (a shareholders’ agreement and the charter) for the Russian-Slovenian joint venture South Stream Telecom AG.