OREANDA-NEWS. August 21, 2009. The main subjects of discussion were economic cooperation, in particular ways to reverse the decline in trade and economic relations, and regional affairs, including with regard to settling the Trans-Dniester issue.

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Mr President, I wish you welcome, and I want to say that no matter what the political season, no matter what turn events take in Moldova, and in Russia, our relations play a big part in uniting our peoples, helping us to get through the crisis, and enabling us to resolve all manner of problems. I therefore consider the regular consultations between our countries’ leaders to be exceptionally important. 

We met not so long ago in Moscow, and it is with pleasure that I now welcome you here to Sochi.

Naturally, we will discuss economic matters, ways of overcoming the economic difficulties we face. Looking through the documents, I am sorry to note that our trade and economic relations have declined somewhat. We need to look at what we can do to reverse this situation. We will discuss other subjects too, talk about regional affairs. And so, once again I wish you welcome, and I hope we will have a productive conversation.

PRESIDENT OF MOLDOVA VLADIMIR VORONIN: Thank you for this opportunity to meet once again. Indeed, aside from the matters you already mentioned, we will also be holding the CIS summit in October, at which we will pass on the presidency to you.

Furthermore, in October, we also expect to resume negotiations in the 5+2 format on the issue of our country’s reunification. And then there are current matters, as you correctly noted, related to the global crisis and other problems. These are all things we need to discuss.

I think it is a very good and normal thing that these sorts of consultations are now taking place on a regular and ongoing basis and are producing good results. 

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: I agree with you.