Prime Minister Vladimir Putin meets with President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes James Albaugh
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr President, Mr Ambassador, it is my pleasure to meet with you. I hear you've signed an agreement today, a good one I think, not a ground-breaking agreement, but still it's a big contract, for 50 pieces of aircraft. As far as something really ground-breaking, our relationship has certainly been marked with some ground-breaking developments. I'm not referring to any particular agreements, just to the scope of our relationship with Boeing on the whole, which in my view has developed into a serious strategic cooperation. I mentioned today that Boeing bought a quarter of its titanium from Russia, but this has increased lately, currently standing between 35% and 40%.
You said that you doubted whether our relationship would be stable enough at the outset. But it has been growing stronger and I hope your doubts have dissipated. I'd like to assure you, Mr President, that maintaining this stability will remain our priority and we will do everything in our power to make our partners feel confident, benefiting from this stability like Russian participants of the market.
I'd like to thank you for attending the forum and for accomplishing so much with your Russian partners.
James Albaugh (back translation from Russian): Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. It's been a great day for Boeing and for Russia. I think this is the largest contract we've signed this year, it's for 50 aircraft. I think the key thing is that we are cooperating successfully with Russia, in particular on technology.
I mentioned at the forum that 10 years ago international companies faced certain risks on the Russian market. But Russia put titanium production and supplies under control five years ago thanks to the effective management of Mr Sergei Kravchenko [President of Boeing Russia and CIS], which gave us confidence in the reliability of supplies. We wouldn't be able to manufacture our aircraft without Mr Kravchenko in fact. You spoke of stability, and we recognise how important this is.
Vladimir Putin: I think you will agree with me, even in the presence of the U.S. Ambassador, that we can regard you and other large American companies as the best envoys of the Russian Federation in the United States. Our traditional partners, Boeing and other large American companies, always get involved when we really need it, so performing a noble and practical mission. This benefits our businesses and economies, helping us to overcome economic crises, but it also plays a very important role in relations between Russia and the U.S.
