OREANDA-NEWS. May 17, 2011. “We have many interesting projects and bilateral plans with good prospects,” Mr Putin said during his meeting with the Brazilian vice president.
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Vice President, ladies and gentlemen. We are happy to see you here in Moscow.

It has been a long time since this high-level commission last met. Over that time, a lot of things have happened; on the downside, the economic crisis hit our countries, but on the upside, our bilateral trade grew 28% last year.

Brazil is certainly one of Russia’s strategic partners, not only in Latin America, but globally too – I am referring to our cooperation in the UN and BRICS. We have many interesting projects and bilateral plans with good prospects. We are very happy to see you. Welcome!

Michel Temer (via interpreter): We are also glad to be here in Russia and appreciate the warm welcome.

Our trip has been very productive. Yesterday, we visited the Central Election Commission and met with its chairman, Mr Churov (Vladimir Churov). We have the Superior Electoral Court in Brazil. Its president, Mr Lewandowski (Ricardo Lewandowski), had the opportunity to meet Mr Churov. They had a very rewarding meeting and discussed issues pertaining to our electoral systems.

This morning we went to the State Duma. In fact it was my second visit there. I was there 11 years ago, and in a different capacity, but that was a very productive visit too.

Our visit ends with this meeting with Your Excellence. This makes it all the more pleasant to hear your praise of our bilateral cooperation. Russian-Brazilian relations are expanding in many areas including the economy, culture, and now sports too, and science and technology. Our cooperation is growing rapidly, and we are satisfied with that. I am confident that the documents we will sign here will help us further expand our cooperation.

Incidentally, there is a Brazilian ballerina at the Bolshoi Theatre, the only foreign dancer there, which is an eloquent example of our growing cultural cooperation. I was very happy to find that out today; it is a symbol of rapprochement between Russia and Brazil. I mean that there is more to our cooperation than the export and import of goods.

We are currently geared toward the high watermark you set when you visited Brazil back in 2004 – to augment bilateral trade to USD 10 billion.

I would like to use this opportunity to convey the warmest greetings from our president, Dilma Rousseff, and to thank you for receiving us today.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.