VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mrs Prime Minister, colleagues, I am very glad to see you and welcome you to Moscow once again.
I know that only today you opened a representative office of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce in Moscow. I fully anticipate that this will give rise to additional opportunities for interaction between our respective business structures.
You visited Moscow this spring. Since then we have seen things improve: bilateral trade is recovering. It is well known, and this is something we have discussed, that during the crisis period trade fell by almost 50%, but it is now recovering steadily.
I'm very glad to see you, and we will have the opportunity to talk about those issues we discussed during your last visit.
Welcome!
Jadranka Kosor (as translated): Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. My cordial greetings to you. I am extremely glad that I have the opportunity to be here again, in Moscow, and meet with you. And I would like to relay greetings from the entire Croatian government.
My arrival here follows a very important event. Today the Croatian Economic Chamber opened, or more precisely, I had the honour of opening the Croatian Economic Chamber. Consequently, we have realised another plan that we talked about in March of this year.
I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity to meet with you once again and to exchange views on how we need to strengthen the bonds of friendship that bind our nations. I am convinced that the representative office of the Croatian Economic Chamber will contribute to this, since under its auspices a group has already formed comprising 110 Croatian firms that all want to expand their operations here.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite you, Prime Minister to attend the Croatian summit scheduled for July of this year. It will take place in one of Croatia's most picturesque cities, and for that matter, a globally renowned beauty, the city of Dubrovnik.
All the Eastern European prime ministers will visit us; in other words, practically all our neighbours. We have also have confirmations from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
But we would be very glad if you could visit. We invite you and please feel free to bring your family. We would be very pleased for you to get to know our city and see all that tourism there has to offer.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. I will definitely consider it and we will talk about a timeframe for the visit. I don't know if it will work out this time, but I will come to Croatia for sure. Thank you for the invitation.
I'm sure that our tourists are feeling the difference made by our previous agreements on a visa-free entry for Russian citizens from April to October. This is the height of the tourist season. Russian citizens are keen to travel to Croatia. And I'm glad that this flow will be considerably increased this year and that the Croatian economy will feel it. I would like to thank you for this resolution.
