Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko during his visit to Poland
Transcript ofthe beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Prime Minister, I am glad to meet you again, this time in Poland. The reason for our visit here is very serious - the anniversary of the beginning of World War II. However, I am confident that we will also have enough time to discuss bilateral relations.
The economic situation in Ukraine, as well as Russia, is complicated. Our countries remain important economic partners. There are always plenty of issues to discuss. We traditionally focus our attention on energy, but we also discuss other matters. We have spoken over telephone about big possibilities in aviation, in aircraft manufacturing. There are also many other issues that merit our attention.
I am happy to see you.
Yulia Tymoshenko: Thank you. I believe that this meeting in Poland today is very important for prime ministers and presidents, who can use it to draw conclusions from history and, more importantly, use its lessons to consider their future peaceful coexistence. I know that Russia and Ukraine are working hard to ensure peace, mutual understanding and cooperation in the world.
As for our bilateral programmes, it is very important that we have fostered constructive cooperation and mutual understanding with you in your capacity as Russia's prime minister over the past year. In my opinion, we can say that we have resolved all the problems on the issue of gas supplies. At the very least, we are moving confidently toward the goal of living without these problems. It is important to note that our next meeting will be held at the session of the Economic Committee in Ukraine in October, just as we planned. I invite you and your team to attend it.
I believe that we will be able to make considerable progress in aircraft manufacturing and in the power sector. Apart from gas supplies, we also have a good possibility for cooperation in nuclear power generation. I think that today we will be able to discuss the outline for our potential meeting in October, probably in Kharkov, just as we had planned. We can also decide which agreements we might sign in October.
I am always happy to meet with you. I know that all our meetings lead to practical action.
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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko made statements for the media following a meeting
Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to inform you briefly on our meeting.
We have spent most of the time discussing trade and economic relations between the two countries. We also talked about energy and gas problems, as usual. We agreed that the financial and economic downturn, which is seriously influencing our two economies, should be duly taken into account in our mutual settlements and supplies. We both agreed that we will instruct our respective economic players to bear this in mind.
We realise that the Ukrainian economy currently consumes as much energy as it needs. We will proceed from that. As for the details, we'll leave it up to businesses to settle between themselves. We hope they will do so.
We also believe that it would be wrong to stop here or limit our consultations to energy issues only. We will now be preparing a meeting of the Economic Committee.
Ms Tymoshenko has invited a Russian delegation to Kharkov in October. By that time, we will be well prepared - we won't be discussing these important issues in haste, but have a thorough on-site discussion. We'll talk about diversifying our relations.
As you know, cooperation between some Russian and Ukrainian companies is so deep that these companies would go out of business without each other. They would have to close down. This applies, for example, to aircraft building, which has excellent cooperation prospects. Russia has adjusted its policy with regard to An-70. We'll see how we could implement this project. There is much to discuss here.
But the most important effort to be made here is to help these Russian and Ukrainian companies join efforts at the organisational and legal level.
We certainly have many issues in shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and other spheres - they will be among the highlights of our October meeting.
Yulia Tymoshenko: I would like to confirm again that our contacts with regard to gas supplies to Ukraine and shipment of Russian gas to Europe have been successful and predictable ever since we signed the contracts. We feel that the crisis in this sphere is over now.
It is extremely important that Mr Putin and I have discussed today the amount of Russian gas consumed by Ukraine. The Russian Prime Minister's policy is very important here: Ukraine will only pay for as much gas as it consumes, at least for the time of the global depression.
I believe that our joint projects in aircraft building are worth being implemented, because we are working on all the models on a parity basis, or 30%-70% on some. Cooperation on such a large scale requires more joint effort, and more joint projects aimed at joint operation on international markets.
In addition, the transportation problems we have had will be certainly settled during our October meeting. We will also make plans and decisions in other spheres defined as our joint priorities.
I would like to add that today's meeting was especially important for Ukraine. I think it was a natural extension of the constructive cooperation between our two Governments.
