Plenary session of St Petersburg
International Economic Forum
Vladimir Putin made a speech
at the plenary session of the St Petersburg International
Economic Forum.
June 7, 2019
17:50
St Petersburg
03:17:33
SD
Plenary session of St Petersburg
International Economic Forum
Also took part in the SPIEF
session are President of China Xi Jinping, President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev, Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini
and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. The discussion is moderated by journalist,
RT TV Channel presenter Sophie Shevardnadze.
* * *
Sophie Shevardnadze (retranslated):
Hello, everyone,
I am Sophie Shevardnadze.
I am very glad to be able to moderate today’s plenary session,
because the St Petersburg Forum is a unique platform that brings
together businessmen, officials and leaders whose paths would never
otherwise have crossed, anywhere in the world. We meet each year
to figure out how to move the world forward.
I had the opportunity
to talk with our speakers shortly before the start. I think they
are committed to having a candid conversation. In any case,
I very much hope that we will have one today.
And now, the traditional
speeches by heads of state. Mr President, you are first.
President of Russia Vladimir
Putin: Good afternoon, friends and colleagues, ladies
and gentlemen.
I am happy to welcome
to Russia all heads of state and government, all participants
in the St Petersburg International Economic Forum. We are grateful
to our guests for their attention and friendly attitude
to Russia and their willingness for joint work and business
cooperation that always rests, as business leaders know well,
on pragmatism, understanding of mutual interests and, of course,
trust in each other, frankness and clear-cut positions.
I would like to take
advantage of the SPIEF venue to tell you not only about
the goals and tasks that we in Russia have set for ourselves
but also about our views on the state of the global
economic system. For us this is not an abstract conversation, nor
an academic discussion. Russia’s development, simply by virtue
of its size, history, culture, the human potential and economic
opportunities cannot take place outside the global context, without
the correlation of the domestic, national and global
agendas.
So, what is the state
of affairs today or at least how do we in Russia see it?
