After a ceremony marking the completion of the first phase in the construction of the Federal Research and Clinical Centre of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a private conversation with German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Vice Chancellor, allow me to welcome you in Moscow once again.

I am very pleased to note that during your working visit to Moscow you had an opportunity to attend a ceremony associated with the construction of a large medical centre in Moscow.

You are absolutely right in noting that as major trade and economic partners, we should promote our cooperation, including our high-tech and humanitarian contacts.

I was particularly impressed by my trip to this construction site last December, particularly so when I learned that one of the German partners left his family during Christmas and rushed to Moscow to meet me on the site to review the progress in the clinic's construction. I was honestly impressed by that.

I realized that those engaged in working on the site included an international Russian-German team, and were motivated by genuine humanism. I would like to thank you very much for your attention to this project and political support for its implementation.

We are fully funding this project from the federal budget. However, 35 scholarships which the German Government grants for the annual training of our personnel is critically important support. It would be impossible to set up this centre without this intellectual contribution.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier (as translated): Mr Putin, thank you for this meeting and the visit to the children's cancer centre construction site.

I think our meeting last winter with a family whose child has cancer emphasised once again the importance of our teamwork and interregional partnership. Our relations continue to grow, as I saw in Yekaterinburg last year. A similar partnership will be established here, I am sure.

Projects such as this one bring forth our potential. Especially important in this context is our economic exchange.

However, the scope of such exchange has diminished in these hard times, though it remains intensive enough. We are dedicating greater efforts to anti-crisis measures in finance as the crisis influences our national economies, as experience everywhere shows. We are trying to do our best to prevent mass unemployment. We hope that the crisis will soon reach its bottom and the economy will start growing, and that industrial products will be in greater demand than today.

Current conditions demand even closer coordination of our plans and interaction than before. I am pleased to see that Russia is also bearing its part of responsibilities and was active in the Washington and London summits, where we coordinated our efforts. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: You are quite right to note that our partnership is of essential importance. United Europe is Russia's crucial trade and economic partner, and Germany leads Europe unquestionably as our principal trade and economic partner. Russian-German partnership is extremely diversified. You are correct in saying that we are all dealing with hard times. I have seen today the trying situation of Karstadt, one of the foremost German department store chains.

We have many similar problems, and we must not leave the population to its fate if we are to remain not just market but social-market states. But then, every practical situation has its specifics. Government aid might be effective in some instances but impossible in others. However, today's conditions enable us to join hands and support each other. This is essential for our partnership during the crisis.

Germany remains one of the basic exporters of finished industrial products to other European countries, so our partnership helps to retain thousands of jobs in Germany.

Russian industrial companies, especially energy companies, regard Germany as a primary partner, so our cooperation maintains Russian economic stability to an extent.

Another field of our partnership is mutual investment. This is pivotal under present conditions. In particular, there is a sizable mutual energy investment.

We would welcome positive development in connection with recent events involving investment in Opel.

It is true Austrian-Canadian Magna is entitled to play the central role in this respect as one of the universally recognised leaders in its sphere. As far as I know, Magna has drawn a detailed and realistic anti-crisis plan revolving around cost reduction. However, keeping German-based companies afloat and rescuing the employees are its essential goals.

I mention this not merely because one of our banks has invested in Opel but also because the company has two plants in Russia. We will surely participate in the project further in the closest possible contact with Germany's Government, trade unions and other stockholders.

There are many other fields of partnership, of which I would like to emphasise high technologies.

There are many ambitious transport projects, too-not bilateral but multilateral, on a European scope.

We will not ignore energy, either. We thank the German Government for the support in the Nord Stream project. Please give my best wishes to Chancellor Angela Merkel in this connection.

Thank you.

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Following discussions with Mr Steinmeier, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin answered questions from the German media.

Vladimir Putin: First we need to persuade the public.

The Russian Government is not directly involved in the Opel deal. Of course, the Government is a major shareholder in Sberbank. Moreover, it feels very confident, its financial position is very sound. We will approach this work very realistically.

These are not empty phrases. Indeed, I know that Mr Wolf, who represents Magna, is working actively with the IG-Metall trade unions, with the Laender administrations, and with the workforce. We understand the concerns that Chancellor Merkel of the Federal Republic of Germany has raised. She has told me several times over the phone that the trade unions want to know what the investors intend to do with the enterprise. Mr Wolf is working very actively with all these entities. We would not want any radical changes there.

I mentioned that we have two Opel plants in Russia. We would want to see the conditions created for these enterprises to develop so that gradually there would be a kind of partial capacity transfer. That should happen calmly, in close cooperation, as part of routine business contacts and in dialogue with everyone involved in the process as well as the shareholders. I fully expect this to take place.

If in conditions of economic downturn this kind of cooperation expands, if the degree of interaction between our economies increases, then I think this would be one of the very few positive developments under today's crisis conditions. It makes our economies more resilient relative to the crisis.

Question: Mr Prime Minister, can you imagine a future where Russian security does not involve nuclear weapons?

Vladimir Putin: Of course. Why do we need nuclear weapons? Were we the ones that invented them? Have we ever used them? If those who developed the atomic bomb are ready to renounce it, just as I hope other nuclear powers - official and unofficial would be, then of course we would welcome and facilitate the process in every way possible.

It is, as it happens, one of the areas that the Foreign Minister is responsible for, and I believe that Germany's active involvement will be greatly in demand.