Russian Presidency, May 27th 2016
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/52024

Following the Russian-Greek talks, Vladimir Putin and Alexis Tsipras made a joint statement for the press.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the leadership of the Hellenic Republic, to all our colleagues for a warm and hearty welcome.

Jointly with President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras we held substantial and detailed talks, and considered a broad spectrum of issues of the bilateral and international agendas. I would like to highlight the impressive number of documents signed as part of the visit.

We were at one in thinking that despite negative factors, Russian-Greek relations, the partnership between our countries continue to develop on a steady basis. The Year of Russia held in Greece and the Year of Greece held in Russia are outstanding examples of this.

As you remember, these cross years were launched during the talks with Mr Pavlopoulos in Moscow last January. This is a truly large-scale, inter-state project that embraces a total of 170 events in a wide variety of areas, including culture, science, education, the economy, trade, tourism and sport. The celebration of the 1,000th anniversary of Russian monastic presence on Mount Athos plays an especially important role in the cross years.

Consolidation of trade and economic ties is an important component of this extensive programme. There is certainly much work that needs to be done. Last year, our trade turnover amounted to $2.7 billion, which is 34 percent below our previous indicators. Both the EU sanctions against Russian enterprises and our counter-measures have had an impact, as well as the price drop on energy resources and fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

Jointly with our Greek partners, we outlined a number of practical steps to reverse the negative trends and enter a growth trajectory. Thessaloniki will host the 10th session of the Russian-Greek Intergovernmental Commission in September. The five working groups making it up will have to work intensively to search for new opportunities for cooperation.

I would like to thank the Greek side for granting Russia the status of an honorary guest at the Thessaloniki International Fair. We will actively contribute to this important event. On our part, we are looking forward to seeing our Greek colleagues at the upcoming economic forums in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and the Russian Far East.

There is a huge potential for expanding energy cooperation. Russia has been a major exporter of energy resources to the Greek market over the past 20 years. We cover 60 percent of Greece’s needs in gas and more than 15 percent in oil. A memorandum signed by the Russian Energy Agency and the Greek Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving will facilitate further development of bilateral cooperation in energy efficiency.

We agreed to focus attention on investment cooperation. The figures are modest here: $700 million from the Russian side, while Greek investment in the Russian economy is even more modest, amounting to $12 million. Of course, there are some reserves. I would like to remind you that there are 130 companies with Greek capital in Russia, their trade turnover amounts to $2.5 billion a year.

There is a solid foundation for broadening transport cooperation. In particular, Russian Railways is looking into investing funds in a rolling stock maintenance company and a railway operator, as well as the Thessaloniki port infrastructure.

Russian Helicopters is interested in developing cooperation with Greece in supplying military vehicles, KamAZ – in supplying trucks, United Engine Corporation, another Russian enterprise — in supplying power and gas compressor equipment.

We are determined to actively promote cooperation between Russian and Greek regions. An inter-agency memorandum in this sphere has been drafted to assist in this.

Moscow, Moscow Region and Rostov Region maintain close ties with Greek regions and municipalities. Work is currently underway to establish twin-city relations between Athens and Sochi.

Great attention was devoted to cultural and humanitarian cooperation. As part of the cross-cultural years, Athens and St Petersburg hosted outstanding exhibitions of internationally renowned works of art: gold Scythian items from the collection of Russia’s Hermitage Museum and ancient Greek sculpture from the collection of the Acropolis Museum.

The Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens has opened the exhibition of the Ascension icon by Andrei Rublev from the collection of Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery. The opening was timed to coincide with the present visit.

Renowned Russian performers, including those from the Bolshoi Theatre and the Igor Moiseyev Dance Company, will tour Greece this year.

We are thankful to the Greek leadership for their caring attitude towards memorial sites connected with Russia. I would like to express my gratitude to Piraeus authorities for granting permission to restore headstones and monuments to Russian officers and sailors who died in the late 19th century – early 20th century, in the Russian section of the city cemetery.

We discussed prospects for cooperation in education. Currently 225 Greek citizens are studying at Russian universities, 40 of them on a state-subsidised basis. We agreed on further allocation of state scholarships to Greek students.

Tourism is a very important sector for our citizens as Mr Prime Minister has just pointed out. Unfortunately, we saw a decline in the past years; however, the growth in March of this year amounted to 523 percent. This, naturally, is connected with the situation at the traditional holiday destinations for Russians – Turkey and Egypt. A significant part of Russian citizens is ready to redirect their attention to Greece. Russia’s Federal Tourism Agency reported that Greece has already taken the first place in the number of holiday bookings, and the expected number of Russian tourists amounts to around one million people. However, I believe that if the visa issues are solved promptly, this number might be three times higher.

The signed programme of joint efforts in tourism until 2018 is directed at consolidating cooperation in this sphere. We are certain that this document will serve to promote tourist exchange.

As for international issues, Mr Prime Minister has touched upon almost all the topics we discussed. I can only confirm this. We carefully examined all these issues and concluded that our positions coincide in many of them. Of course, there are some problematic items that we still have to work on.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In conclusion, I would like to thank the President of the Hellenic Republic, the Prime Minister and all our Greek colleagues for a constructive and substantial exchange of opinions.

I would also like to thank all the residents of Athens for a very warm and hospitable reception. We saw this as we moved around the Greek capital. I would like to apologise for any inconveniences we might have caused, but I am sure that the agreements reached today will make a significant contribution to the development of the Russian-Greek partnership and friendship.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Question: I have a question about trade and economic cooperation, the energy dialogue and common European security.

In February, Gazprom signed a memorandum of intent with European partners on building a pipeline. The project was meant to replace the South Stream, which was curtailed due to the unproductive stance of the European Commission, not through our fault. The new pipeline to be laid across the Black Sea to deliver natural gas to Greece and further to Italy.

Will those wonderful cooperation plans be affected by possible tension caused by the anti-missile defence deployment in Europe? I mean, in particular, AMD elements’ deployment in Poland and Romania.

Alexis Tsipras: You have touched upon the energy sector, which, as you are aware, is pivotal to the economic growth of the region, including Greece. We do not conceal our strategic plans to turn Greece into an energy hub. Our geography allows us to fulfil such ambitions and gives us certain opportunities.

You mentioned the complications and difficulties we are facing due to economic and geopolitical tensions. We have clearly stated that we are open for cooperation. And we are going to use them proceeding from our national interests for enhancing cooperation and peace, not as grounds for conflict and confrontation.

As you may understand, Greece can make its contribution if the tension does not exceed our abilities and possibilities. We are striving to perform within the EU and NATO as a positive bridge of friendship and cooperation between Europe and Russia. We are trying to explain to our partners how crucial it is for the European Union to have a multilateral energy policy.

Let me also note that apart from natural gas, there are possibilities for a close cooperation in energy – renewable energy sources, oil, and all those issues have been considered today precisely because we believe that energy should serve as a cooperation bridge in the region, not a springboard for confrontation, diktat or temptation.

Vladimir Putin: As for the energy sector, and, in fact, economic cooperation in any field, this is certainly the best guarantee of securing peace because it creates conditions for interaction between people, for promoting mutual interests, and simply creates a good atmosphere for sustaining cooperation.

As you know, we were set to build the South Stream across Bulgarian territory, but we were not given the opportunity to do so. The Bulgarian Government, in fact, under pressure from the United States and the European Commission, dodged the implementation of the project. We were offered to go through Turkish territory. Let me disclose a secret: our Turkish partners stated conditions for changing the gas price from the onset, but this was not the main issue. I think we could have settled that, but we saw no support from the European Commission yet again.

We are ready to consider any project regardless of the context of political relations with any European nation, with our neighbours. However, we need preliminary guarantees; we are not going to fall for empty words about it being in our mutual interests, and we are not going to spend money on it. I would like to point out that we incurred certain costs, we had to spend funds on preliminary work, and those investments were not recouped.

Now we are planning to implement the Nord Stream 2 project. I hope nobody is going to impede us here. However, that does not mean we are no longer willing to work in southern Europe. Just recently, and this has also been mentioned here, an Italian-French company, a Greek company and Gazprom have signed a memorandum. The partners are now evaluating the prospects.

What is the impact of security-related issues on economic cooperation, in particular, the commissioning of the US anti-missile defence deployment area in Romania? What is the impact? The impact is negative, and it cannot be otherwise. Because some time ago the United States unilaterally withdrew from the Anti-Missile Defence Treaty and started what amounts to undermining the fundamentals of international security. Yet another step has been made now.

Since the early 2000s, we have been persistently repeating the same thing, like a mantra: we will have to respond to it in some way. Nobody listens to us, nobody is willing to have talks with us, we do not hear anything but platitudes, and those platitudes mainly boil down to the fact that this is not directed against Russia and does not threaten Russia’s security.

To be continued.