Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani during a summit of the Council of the Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation member countries
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues.
I am very glad that you and I are meeting individually within the context of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation forum. The relationship between the Russian Federation and Pakistan has been developing very well as of late. This concerns both our political contacts and our economic interaction.
Nevertheless, as far as economic interaction is concerned, trade between our two countries is so far very insignificant. But we are putting into place mechanisms for cooperation. One of these is the intergovernmental commission, which we need to launch as soon as possible.
We, of course, are observing very attentively what is happening within Pakistan, and we sympathise with you. We wish you every success in your struggle with the difficulties that your country faces, including the fight against extremism and terrorism.
We see new opportunities open in a number of areas and I am confident that our two countries' relationship will have good prospects.
Yousaf Raza Gillani (as translated): Thank you, Mr Prime Minister, for the opportunity for me and my delegation to meet with you. We already met in Davos, but the meeting was very brief - we met at the reception. And we are very grateful for this opportunity to meet here, on the sidelines of the SCO summit.
We would like to play a more active role in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, because we are also a country in this region.
You rightly noted that we should strengthen our economic ties, which for the moment have been outpaced by our political interaction. And you also rightly noted new vistas for our economic cooperation.
I share your concern with regard to terrorism and extremism. I hope that we will examine these issues in greater detail. Countries are suffering from these problems not only in the region, but also in the entire world. I hope that we will able to find a common regional approach to fighting this threat, since your country plays an extremely important role in our region.
