PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Dear Mr President, I am pleased to welcome you to Russia, to Sochi. I am glad to have the opportunity to meet and discuss a number of current topical issues.

Russian-Syrian relations are developing steadily, confidently. If you take economic relations, and this is an important moment, in the past year we have reached the impressive figure of one billion dollars in trade. Already in the first five months of this year our rates of trade have doubled, so in my opinion this is not bad at all.

Our relations in other spheres are also developing. This is certainly important as well. In addition, our relations have traditionally been a key factor in the dialogue on the most complex, the most important international issues. I think that today we will talk about the problems surrounding a Middle Eastern settlement. Let's talk about other issues too, including new ones which have recently emerged. We are grateful to Syria for its …