Dmitry Medvedev's talks with President of Italy Sergio Mattarella

The two officials discussed investment cooperation and the two countries’ joint projects.

Excerpt from the transcript:

Dmitry Medvedev: This is President Mattarella’s first official visit to Russia as head of the Italian Republic.

We attach special importance to relations with Italy. Russia and Italy have a good partnership despite the current difficulties in our relations with the European Union.

We are certainly ready to restore the former dynamics in relations with all European countries.

With Italy, we have long-term contacts in various fields: the economy – primarily energy, industry, trade and investment, as well as culture and education. I hope that your visit will help further strengthen these relations.

Our mutual trade has decreased from $54 billion to $20 billion over the past three years. There are objective reasons for this, namely, the change in prices for a number of goods, including energy carriers, but there are subjective reasons as well: Europe’s restrictive measures, which hardly contribute to the development of relations. Yet, we do understand that you have certain obligations and how they work.

Sergio Mattarella (via interpreter): The relationship between our countries is excellent. It is a relationship of friendship, a strong relationship, something so many politicians have worked on. These relations are developing in all sectors – politics, the economy and trade. We are successfully weathering this difficult period; on both sides, there is mutual interest in resolving the problems as effectively as possible and returning to the level of relations we can sustain.

Our economic relations can be described as strategic. There is huge potential for growth, and we attach great importance to this.

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