Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Myasnikovich, I am glad to see you. We can use this opportunity, a meeting of the council of the heads of state (Supreme State Council, the highest authority of the Union State of Russia and Belarus), to hold consultations to discuss the current economic and cultural agenda. Our colleagues have been working all this time. I have met with deputy prime ministers to discuss with them what we have achieved and where we have failed, and other issues we need to address. So now we need to compare notes in order to prepare for the upcoming big discussion, which will be attended by our presidents, and for our future work. I’d like to say, though, that the weather is just right.

Mikhail Myasnikovich: Yes, it is.

Dmitry Medvedev: It is snowing in Moscow, which is not great, but here the sun is shining and it even smells of spring. In short, we are glad to welcome you and everyone from the Belarusian delegation!

Mikhail Myasnikovich: Thank you very much. I’d like to say that the meetings we had last December produced a very good positive result that made all of this possible. When preparing for this meeting, I learned that working groups did their utmost, holding a series of top-level meetings by industries and gathering together a great deal of the necessary material. I believe that we will be discussing these issues today, because the scale of our cooperation calls for taking top-level political decisions for several years to come, in particular on prospective joint projects. Overall, I’d like to say that bilateral trade has been growing at a good pace, much faster than our foreign economic relations. Most importantly, we have launched good, forward-looking joint projects.

I’d like to thank Mr Dvorkovich (Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy Prime Minister), who also visited Belarus with a group of ministers.

Dmitry Medvedev: Yes, he has reported on that visit and the issues you discussed in detail. He also showed me the package of documents and the memorandum that was drafted there, so I know that you worked quite well together.

Mikhail Myasnikovich: Yes, we discussed this issue at a government meeting and adopted a decision; I will comment on some of its details today.

Dmitry Medvedev: Let’s discuss it now. Thank you.

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