Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr President, I am glad to see you again. This time, we are meeting for your full-fledged official visit as President of the Palestinian National Authority. I believe this is symbolic and, of course, will help us to develop very good and cordial relations between the Russian Federation and the Palestinian National Authority.

I remember my visit to you as if it had happened just recently, but it was almost two years ago. I have very vivid memories of it. Much has happened since then in international and, of course, domestic affairs. In any case, I would like to say once again that Russia has always supported and will continue to support your efforts to create a strong and modern Palestinian state and, of course, we will contribute to establishing lasting peace in the Middle East and promoting economic and cultural relations with friendly Palestine in every way. So, once again, welcome!

I hope that you and the Palestinian delegation are not freezing here: spring doesn’t come to our land too quickly, but sooner or later it will.

Mahmoud Abbas (via interpreter): Thank you very much. Your spring is warm. Even your winters are warm for us.

Each time we come to Moscow, we see the sun. Of course, by the “sun,” I mean the openness, brightness and warmth of our bilateral relations, which unite the Russian Federation and the Russian people with the Palestinian people. We have long-standing historical relations which are getting stronger with each passing moment and with every minute.

We see that our bilateral relations are getting stronger not only in the economic or political sphere, but also in the cultural sphere. We have very good prospects for developing bilateral cooperation in other areas, as well. Of course, we hope that if we manage to create an independent Palestinian state, the potential for such cooperation will be even greater.

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