Press statements
and answers to journalists’ questions following Russian-Italian talks
May 17, 2017
14:40
Sochi
President
of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
I want
to start by noting our increasingly frequent meetings with our
Italian partners and friends. Last month, we received President Sergio
Mattarella in Moscow, and today, we had substantive
and productive talks with Italian Prime Minister Mr Gentiloni.
Italy has
traditionally been one of Russia’s major partners and our countries
seek to build constructive relations based on equality
and respect for each other’s interests.
We discussed
the whole range of cooperation areas during the talks today,
and outlined concrete plans for further development. We gave priority
attention to promising areas for economic development.
Italy is one
of Russia’s major trade partners. Our bilateral trade came to around
$20 billion last year. Of course, as a result
of the circumstances we know, this figure is considerably lower than
the peak figure we had in 2013, but we do have grounds for hope
because we saw bilateral trade growth of close to 30 percent
at the start of this year.
To be
continued.
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