OREANDA-NEWS. June 21, 2011. Vladimir Putin's address: Ladies and gentlemen, friends, I am very glad to see you and have an opportunity to meet with many of my friends.

You'll be pleased to know that relations between our countries, as you can see, are developing excellently. Yesterday I had an opportunity to exchange impressions about our cooperation with the French Prime Minister. We are glad that France is one of the few countries with which our trade has reached the pre-crisis level, even exceeding it slightly last year. This speaks to the fact that relations between our countries are developing very successfully. Russia has several larger trade partners but the quality of its relations with France has allowed us to reach the pre-crisis trade level, and we have fairly diversified economic relations. Here I mean the traditional areas of cooperation: power generation, which has been developing at a fast rate, hydrocarbons and renewable energy sources, as well as the nuclear industry, in which France is a recognised leader.

This is a bad time for nuclear power after the terrible Fukushima tragedy, but you and I know very well – and I'm sure many others will at least agree with me – that, unfortunately, it is unrealistic for France, where nuclear power provides almost 80% of energy requirements, to stop using it now, no matter how much we might like this. Despite the tragedy in Japan, we continue gradually to implement our plan to increase the share of nuclear power in Russia from the current 15%-16% to 25% and more.

Why am I concentrating on this? Because in the past it has been rather difficult to work with French partners in this area. France is a European leader in this respect and, naturally, it would like to strengthen its leadership. Yet we have managed to come to an agreement here too, and to move in the general direction of bilateral work, and in the markets of other countries. We are actively involving French companies in projects in countries where they are the indisputable leaders. This is not the limit of our cooperation, which also includes aviation and space projects. Unfortunately, we have delayed the launch of spacecraft from the spaceport in French Guiana, but I hope this will take place in autumn. There are necessary prerequisites for this. We are also developing traditional forms of bilateral trade and cooperation in the high-tech sphere, energy, and trade in general.

Of course, full-scale bilateral relations are impossible without the cultural component. It was with the active support and assistance of many people present here in this auditorium that the France-Russia Cross Year was held in 2010. We held a large number of joint events which certainly enriched our cultural relations.

It is clear that Russian architecture would have been impossible without French architecture. And some aspects of French literature would not have developed without key elements in Russian literature. I would like to inform you that yesterday I signed a government resolution on the federal targeted programme of developing the Russian language, designed for the next several years. One part of it provides for facilitating and rendering support for the development of the Russian language in foreign countries. It has been proposed to hold a cross year of the French and Russian languages. I hope I can depend on the active participation of many of the specialists present here in the implementation of this programme. Of course, such events will necessarily bring France and Russia closer together, which have so much in common in their history and culture.

In about an hour Mr Fillon and I will unveil a monument to the Russian Expeditionary Force that fought here, in France, during World War I. You know, it was an utter, though pleasant surprise, when our French colleagues proposed this project. It shows that people in both Russia and France care for their common history. We were allies in two wars and now, with this accumulated experience in partnership and the resolution of vital and complicated problems, we are moving forward, actively cooperating in the UN and in the G8 and G20. We are working together to improve our common European home. France has always been Russia's key strategic partner in the full meaning of the word. I would like to thank you for working together with us and to wish you success in this noble undertaking.

Thank you for your time. We now have an opportunity to freely exchange opinions about our joint operation and the issues we should focus on in the immediate future. Thank you.