The prime ministers discussed key issues of bilateral cooperation in the trade, economic, energy, financial, scientific and technical, humanitarian and cultural spheres and the implementation of major joint industrial and infrastructure projects.
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Conversation with Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov
Dmitry Medvedev: To begin with, I’d like to congratulate you and all Ukrainian people on the forthcoming New Year. Second, I hope that we’ll manage to exchange opinions on how things are at a meeting that is being held shortly after the talks at the presidential level, which were followed by the signing of important documents. I’d like to tell you that yesterday we bought the first tranche of Ukrainian sovereign bonds for $3 billion upon my instructions and on the basis of the documents that were signed. These funds were transferred to Ukraine’s Central Bank yesterday. This is one of the items on our joint agenda.
I suggest that today we should talk not only about the financial aspect of our cooperation because our plans are vast. We really have to resuscitate many things that, regrettably, have been lost in Russian-Ukrainian relations recently. We shouldn’t take offence at each other but rather start thinking and working. I’ve recently spoken with our Belarusian partners about this. Belarus has become our largest trade partner for the first time in post-Soviet history. By tradition, Ukraine was always first, simply because the scale of the economies is different. This is not a matter of grievances. We must simply restore trade, economic and investment cooperation. We’ll carry out the plans that we have made. My best regards to you on the eve of the coming holidays once again.
Mykola Azarov: Thank you. I’d also like to congratulate you, Mr Medvedev, the members of your Government and all Russian people with the upcoming holidays – the New Year. I’m most grateful for the invitation to take part in the Eurasian Union summit. In May, the heads of state decided to grant Ukraine the observer status and we’re actively using it. Regrettably, Mr Yanukovych couldn’t come and asked me to take part. I’m also grateful for the forthcoming meeting with you. It will help us to discuss, as you said quite rightly, not only large-scale agreements between our presidents but also many issues of our trade and economic cooperation.
I was glad to learn that today our National Bank received the first tranche. This is a very important stabilising factor for us. Owing to the signed agreements our ratings have gone up and we have overcome some of our financial difficulties. Of course, we are grateful to you, the Russian President and all of our partners in your Government for making such decisions and for carrying them out so fast – this helps us resolve many problems.
I’m looking at 2014 with hope because we see it primarily in the context of restoring our trade and economic relations with the Russian Federation. We are already planning to reach the level of at least 2011. This is extremely important for us because this means jobs, our enterprises, budget revenues and salaries. Therefore, we should organise at the Government level everything that we have agreed on with the President. I’m convinced about this.
Dmitry Medvedev: Okay. Let’s discuss all of these issues.
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