Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
With Prime Minister of South Korea Jung Hong-won
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, we would like to cordially welcome you to Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana. Thank you for coming. We are now concluding the Olympic Games. As I see it, the Olympics are quite interesting, and people from Russia and around the world like them. I am confident that you are also closely following these Olympic Games because Pyeongchang is preparing to host the next Olympic Winter Games in 2018. I wish you the successful implementation of all necessary projects, so that Pyeongchang will be ready to host the Olympics, and, of course, I wish you every success in organising this event, so that everything turns out very well. If necessary, we would be very happy to provide any assistance that you might need.
Apart from sharing our impressions of the Olympic Games, you and I can discuss the Russian-Korean dialogue and our relations. The bilateral trade turnover continues to grow, no matter what, and it totals about $25 billion. This is probably quite good, but investment projects, on which we have agreed, and that will be implemented, are very important.
I would like to once again express hope that you will have the most favourable impressions of Russia, all the more so as this is your first visit here as Prime Minister, and of Sochi, our southern sport capital.
Chung Hong-won (Via translator): First of all, I would like to say that it is a great honour and joy for me to have this important opportunity to meet with you, especially in this city now hosting the Olympics. For good reasons I was unable to attend the opening ceremony of the Games, but nevertheless, I had time to watch the entire event on TV. Why did it impress me so much? You see, the opening ceremony reflected the wealth of Russian culture, literature, art and so on.
The Sochi Olympics are an outstanding event that involved the greatest number of participants and countries. I arrived in Sochi only two days ago, but I was able to see some important competitions. To my mind, they have been very thoroughly prepared and wonderfully organised. For instance, I would like to note the extremely beautiful performance of Viktor Ahn who was supported by both Russian and Korean fans. I am absolutely confident that he has played a major and important role in bringing our nations together.
As you have already noted, Russia’s experience and work in the process of preparing for the Sochi Olympics will considerably benefit and help the people of Korea during preparations for their own Olympic Games in Pyeongchang. I believe that exchanging experience between our countries and Olympic capitals will help us and all participants in these Olympics. Therefore, we will be grateful for your support.
Dmitry Medvedev: As I have already said, we will certainly provide all possible assistance to you. And I cannot but respond to your comments regarding the performance of Viktor Ahn because this is, indeed, our joint sport success. In reality, he is a sport hero who has performed brilliantly at various Olympic Games, and, indeed, he is a person who unites our two countries. Unfortunately, there are not that many medals in short track competitions.
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