Meeting with President of Guinea-Bissau Umaro Sissoco Embalo

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President, friends, I am very glad to see you again.

I believe we had a good day of work yesterday. I would like to thank you for staying with us during these days. Our work continues. I believe the summit has been a success, not least thanks to you, Mr President, friends. I am grateful that you participated personally. I am confident that this will give an additional boost to the development of our relations with Africa in general and, of course, with Guinea-Bissau in particular.

Relations between our countries are traditionally friendly. We have supported you both during the struggle against colonialism and after your country gained independence. This October will mark the 50^th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. I believe this is a good and important event.

During our talks in Moscow last October, we discussed a wide range of issues on the regional agenda and prospects of bilateral cooperation. Today we have a chance to outline further steps to develop our relations.

We have established regular political dialogue. Last year you had the opportunity to meet with Russia's Foreign Minister on the sidelines of the 77^th UN General Assembly. Thank you for this. Your Parliament Speaker took part in the second Russia-Africa International Parliamentary Conference in Moscow in March. An agreement has been reached to establish a friendship group. Bilateral trade, economic and investment ties have great potential, which has not yet been tapped. Let us talk about possible measures to improve our trade indicators. We can see prospects in such areas as geological exploration, development of the mineral resource base, infrastructure development, energy, agriculture and fisheries.

Our countries enjoy regular cooperation in education. Let us remember once again that more than 5,000 students from Guinea-Bissau have been trained in Soviet and Russian universities. Over the past five years, the allocated quota of state scholarships has more than doubled.

By the way, in response to your request, Mr President, we have made the decision to increase the number of places for your students to 75.

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau takes an active position in solving urgent international and regional problems. This is largely due to your personal efforts, my friend.

The approaches of Russia and Guinea-Bissau to forming a multipolar world order and international security, fighting terrorism, complying with international law, maintaining the central and coordinating role of the UN are among the issues on which our positions are very close to yours.

We can note that Guinea-Bissau has traditionally supported foreign policy initiatives that are important for Russia and we are grateful for your consistent support of our candidates to the elected bodies of the UN and other international organisations.

I am very glad that we have met again.

To be continued.