Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Esteemed Secretary General and colleagues! I’m glad to meet with you once again. We meet regularly in the bilateral format and also during international events. I hope that this assists Russia in moving forward towards our goal – accession to the OECD.

Of course, we want to fast-track this process. We see some technical obstacles as well as the positions of certain countries. However, we hope that this process will be completed soon. Since our country joined the WTO, this has been the biggest priority for us. We keep this in mind when making decisions on domestic policies and when adjusting our laws. I hope that this process will be accomplished with our joint effort.

I would like to cordially greet you. I hope that we will have a productive dialogue with my participation, and naturally with the participation of my colleagues, who will enjoy discussing various issues – not only those that concern Russia’s accession to the OECD. Perhaps we will discuss other issues as well, such as Russia’s G20 presidency, G8 presidency, and also most probably the global economic situation.   

Angel Gurría (via interpreter): Thank you, Mr Prime Minister. I am glad to meet with you again. Your efforts have strongly impacted Russia’s accession to the OECD. When you served as President, you continuously supported Russia's accession and worked to strengthen our ties. I remember we spoke about your proposal to send a delegation to Paris. We discussed this issue with Mr Shuvalov (Igor Shuvalov, First Deputy Prime Minister). A good team is working in Paris at the moment. This will no doubt help because we need, say, dispatchers who will help us resolve problems related to our interaction and also navigate the dialogue in the right direction. I also want to thank you for joining the Nuclear Energy Agency's work at the OECD. I would also like to congratulate you on Russia's accession to the WTO.

We have already discussed this issue with you, Mr Shuvalov and Mr Denisov, First Deputy Foreign Minister. We said that as soon as Russia joins the WTO, our experts will be able to devote more efforts to discussing the procedure of Russia’s accession to the OECD. The point is that accession to the WTO and working with the WTO is not an end in itself. New issues are emerging constantly – new matters that require our attention and participation. However, I think that the process of making an accession to the OECD is an independent, separate matter and quite different from the process of joining the WTO, as we focus on different issues and our agenda is more diversified.

Undoubtedly, trade is among our priorities, but they also include investment, economic, environmental and social policy, and also more complex corporate procedures.

So, what is the outlook for today? First, I should say that some progress has been achieved, and I would like to thank you for that. We have made headway in two concrete areas, and I expect that the relevant committees will soon send me their positive assessments. 

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