Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the summit’s sidelines.
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Dmitry Medvedev meets with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon (speaks Russian): Mr Prime Minister, I am very happy to see you.
Dmitry Medvedev: Your Russian, Mr Secretary-General, gets better every time I see you.
I am also happy to meet with you again. This is our second meeting as part of the East Asia summits.
I would like to share my impressions: these summits are becoming more comprehensive and more productive, and it’s very good that the UN Secretary-General attends these summits as this attaches more importance to them. You delivered a very interesting introductory speech today.
But, for obvious reasons, we have discussed a variety of issues. First of all, regional security issues. You know, we have prepared and approved a large number of special communiqués and declarations on both security and cooperation – essentially, the issues that the United Nations deals with the most.
In my speech I emphasised that the decisions we make will comply with the principles and standards of international law and will be strictly carried out under the coordination of the UN as the leading international platform for the cooperation of all states.
And of course, the summit, the East Asia Summit, has been seriously impacted by recent events and the terrorist attacks that have been carried out in the last few weeks, including the explosion of the Russian plane and the terrorist attack in Paris. And now a tragic event in Mali has taken place – I mean the deaths of so many people at this hotel; six Russian citizens were among them.
This is further proof that terrorism has no limits and that we must come to an agreement as to how to approach the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but we must coordinate this work and agree on our efforts, both politically and militarily, between the concerned states.
This absolutely applies to our country. And,
probably, this is the most important subject that was discussed today on the
sidelines of the summit. Mr Secretary General, it would be very useful to hear
your opinion on this.
Ban Ki-moon (via interpreter): Thank you very much Mr Prime Minister. It is a great honour for me to see you here. Your leadership qualities deserve much praise, and I am always very glad to meet with you and President Putin.
Before I start, I would like to express my sincerest condolences. I really sympathise with you and your people in connection with the tragedy, with deaths of many Russian citizens in the plane crash that took place over the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. These people were victims of a terrorist attack; we have become the targets of terrorist attacks. No political ideology, o grievances can be used to justify this terrible deed, this act of terror. All of these terrorist and extremists must be defeated in the name of common sense. In this regard, we need to unite, we need to demonstrate global solidarity, we need to respond to our common enemy, ISIS, or Daesh, as it is also called, and other terrorist groups. I am counting on Russia to play a leading role in this effort.
You are now fighting against ISIS in Syria. The United Nations is ready to work with its member states, including the Russian Federation, on this. After the first of the year, the UN will submit a comprehensive plan of action to combat violent extremism, for consideration. I keep in touch with the member states. My goal is to collect data from them on their experience as to how we can work together to defeat terrorism and violent extremism and put an end to this activity, including the activity of groups like ISIS, Boko Haram and others. I am counting on your strong support. In this regard I would like to express a high assessment of the leading role of the Russian Federation which is closely cooperating with the United States to solve the root causes at the heart of terrorism, I particularly mean the worsening situation in security and the social situation in Syria. The recent initiatives by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary of State Kerry, supported by 18 international organisations and countries including the UN, give strong political impetus to finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis. I hope that in working with other Security Council members, the Russian Federation will demonstrate solidarity on this issue, as has been the case thus far.
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