Icade : News conference following Russian-German talks

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Madam Federal Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen,

We are pleased to welcome Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel Merkel AngelaFederal Chancellor of Germany to Moscow during her working visit.

During today's substantive and useful talks we touched upon the key issues of our bilateral relations in politics, the economy, and cultural and humanitarian area. And, of course, we had a detailed discussion of a number of international problems.

Let me underscore that Russia is committed to building up cooperation with the Federal Republic on the principles of respect, equality, mutual benefit and consideration for each other's interests.

Germany is one of Russia's biggest international economic partners; it follows the People's Republic of China in terms of trade. The Russia-Germany trade amounted to $43.8 billion in January to October 2019. German investments in Russia total $20 billion whereas the reciprocal Russian investments in the economy of the Federal Republic stand at $9 billion.

Russia and Germany have a number of large energy projects to their credit. We highly appreciate the responsible position of the German Government in support of the widely known Nord Stream 2 project.

During the talks, we also spoke about the issues related to the continuation of the Russian gas transit through the territory of Ukraine. We noted the importance of the agreements reached on December 31 by Gazprom and its Ukrainian partners under which the transit of gas will continue in the coming five years.

These agreements are mutually advantageous and balanced both for Russia and Ukraine and they definitely meet the interests of the European consumers of Russian energy resources.

To be continued.