OREANDA-NEWS. Vladimir Putin and Angel Gurria exchanged views on the prospects of Russia’s accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Secretary-General, dear colleagues, I warmly welcome you to Russia’s capital.

I remember our last meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, and at the time we agreed to meet in Moscow.

I want to inform you that Russia has been consistently following the agreed schedule for harmonising our relations with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). We have accomplished what I think is the most essential aspect of this work, namely acceding to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Mr Secretary-General, I would like to thank you for all the help and support you and your colleagues have given us as we prepare for the G20 summit in St Petersburg this year. We hope to see you among the participants there.

We hope that we will retain our constructive relationship in the future, one which will foster constructive cooperation with your organisation and will help solve problems that effect the entire global economy.

I am very glad to have the opportunity to talk with you today about all aspects of our interaction.

SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT (OECD) JOSE ANGEL GURRIA (retranslated): Thank you very much, Mr President. It is a privilege to visit with you here at the Kremlin.

I would also like to express my gratitude to the team that is with you at this table, and I suppose I could add [the President of Russia’s G20 Representative] Ksenia Yudayeva to the team. But we’ve been working very hard, both on the accession process and preparations for the G20.

We have now been working very actively on accession for the better part of three years, and we started working with you on the G20 long before you took the baton from the Mexicans; we have been cooperating ever since the French presidency.

We will also have the privilege to receive [First Deputy Prime Minister] Mr Shuvalov in the next few weeks in Paris.

In addition, just a few days ago we received [First Deputy State Duma Chairman] Mr Zhukov with a group of parliamentarians that we are working with too, because eventually there may be a need for some changes to legislation, codes, regulations and so on.