Transcript:

Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues, journalists. I would like to say a few words about the results of the talks with Prime Minister of Slovenia, Mr Janez Janša.

We have held fully-fledged talks on all issues. I would like to say right away that the talks were quite successful. Indeed, they were permeated with a spirit of partnership and a desire to expand our bilateral ties. The talks were marked by trust, which is a traditional feature of our relationship. Of course, we focused on trade and economic and investment cooperation. This sphere has, on the whole, been developing over the past few years. I cannot say that we are able to boast of any breakthrough, except in the energy sector, which has now become a leading area of our cooperation. We still have to work actively in other areas. Nevertheless, I would like to say that our bilateral trade turnover soared by over 20% last year, and by the same amount in January-August 2012.

We have agreed to continue our high-tech cooperation, which is very important for our countries. This cooperation encompasses such areas as communications systems and information technology. We discussed energy efficiency and the pharmaceuticals industry. By the way, I would like to mention the involvement of Slovenian companies in the creation of a telecommunications infrastructure for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. This is an interesting aspect of our cooperation.

Of course, our energy cooperation in the context of building the South Stream gas pipeline is a separate and highly important issue. We are moving ahead combining our efforts, and today we have taken note of Slovenia’s special constructive role in this process. We have adopted the final investment decision on the Slovenian section, and we have charted the main organisational parameters of this project. I am confident that the implementation of this project meets our common interests. This is a good symbol and a good sign for many. By the way, it is good that such large-scale projects as the South Stream are accompanied by attendant but very important … My colleague and I have just exchanged opinions that a project involving Gazprom and Comita d. d. is an example of this neighbourly cooperation.

Naturally, we did not overlook the cultural sphere, which we consider to be important. Our people are linked by a long-time friendship, historical memory and cultural similarity. As a result, we have agreed to support this aspect in every possible way, including cooperation within the format of the Forum of Slavic Cultures, and to act in line with the relevant inter-governmental programme.

On the whole, the talks went off well. I would like to thank my counterpart for coming to the Russian Federation and for the results of our talks. Today we have touched on some problems that, as far as I understand, are also in the process of being resolved.

We are also cooperating in the Arctic. Russia and Finland have enormous potential and are highly competent in this sphere, not to mention shipbuilding. These are concrete areas of cooperation. Mr Medvedev, I’m very glad that you have found the time to visit Finland.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to begin by thanking my colleague, Finnish Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen, for the invitation to make this brief but very substantive visit.

The Prime Minister has described what we have been doing recently and cited many interesting figures. I will cite two more. I lived in Leningrad, in St Petersburg, for a long time and I could never imagine that one day 10 million people and four million cars would be crossing the Russian-Finnish border every year. These figures illustrate our diverse cooperation, both human and economic.

I have also told my colleague that our relations have not been greatly affected by the global financial instability, which is good. Our trade was very substantial both last year and the year before that. This year it will be about $20 billion.

That said, trade is not everything. Importantly, we are making rapid progress in investment cooperation. We have spoken about power engineering today, where we have very large projects like Fortum and TGK-1. We have discussed new projects today, for instance, shipbuilding projects. We are very interested in developing projects in high technology and techno-parks. We are looking forward to meeting our Finnish partners and have already done much in Skolkovo. By the way, I have invited Mr Katainen to visit Skolkovo and see what it is like (it is still under construction but already worth seeing). So we have vast spheres of cooperation and our prospects are very good. We still have a busy programme for today – we will take part in a “timber forum” and visit the university. I’m also due to meet with the President of Finland.

We have discussed a range of issues, including the European Union – how should we (I’m referring to Russia) build closer cooperation with it? We have also spoken about issues related to Russia’s accession to the WTO. We have discussed the popular issue of protecting the rights of families and children. This is a high-profile issue in our two countries. So, more or less every issue was touched upon. We will be pleased to answer any other questions. Thank you very much once again.

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