OREANDA-NEWS. October 31, 2011. Russia’s accession to the WTO was the main subject on the agenda at Dmitry Medvedev’s talks with President of Switzerland Micheline Calmy-Rey. The two presidents also discussed bilateral cooperation.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Ms President,

I wish you a warm welcome to Moscow. We have regular contacts, and this is good for developing our countries’ relations. I am therefore very pleased to see you here today, on this Sunday.

We will have the chance to look over our bilateral relations today, but there is no reason for me to hide that we also hope to discuss the situation regarding the Russian Federation’s accession to the World Trade Organisation. I want to thank the Swiss Confederation for the intermediary efforts it has made, acting to facilitate Russia’s accession and pave the way towards obtaining the necessary agreements.

Once again, I welcome you, and I note too, that we are lucky with the unusually fine weather today, for sometimes it is already snowing in Moscow at this time of year.

PRESIDENT OF SWITZERLAND MICHELINE CALMY-REY (retranslated): Thank you very much, Mr President.

Thank you for the warm reception. I was touched that you agreed to meet with me today, on a Sunday. This just goes to show how good the relations between our countries are. I want to thank Russia, and you personally, Mr President, for the trust you have placed in Switzerland, entrusting us with this work to accompany Russia’s accession to the WTO. I hope that our talks today will be fruitful and that their results will enable Russia to join the WTO by the end of this year, in December.

DMITRY MEDVEDEV: We also want this very much. Thank you.