Meeting of President Türk with Russian President Medvedev

Moscow, 16.5.2011  |  press release

President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, is in Moscow on a working visit at the invitation of President of the Russian Federation, Dr Dmitry Medvedev. This is a continuation of the cooperation between the Slovenian and the Russian president who agreed in November 2010, during the official visit of President Türk in the Russian Federation, to hold periodical working discussions.

The discussion partners reviewed the progress made in the implementation of bilateral agreements between Slovenia and Russia that were concluded during the official visit of President Türk and at the meetings that followed. According to their estimations, the bilateral relations between the two countries are very good and are developing successfully in all areas. Otherwise, the Slovenian and Russian President mostly paid attention to international topics in their talks, especially to the development of security and cooperation mechanisms in Europe, and some open issues of European security.

President Medvedev presented his efforts to solve the Nagorno Karabakh issue, which have a wide support also in the Republic of Slovenia, whereas President Türk emphasised the significance of concrete steps that should be taken to help establish the confidence, necessary for the final solution. Furthermore, they discussed the situation in Moldova and the solution on the Transnistrian issue. They agreed that apart from the efforts already in progress, the engagement of the European Union needs to be strengthened.

The two presidents also touched upon the development of the cooperation between the Russian Federation and the NATO Alliance as well as between the Russian Federation and the European Union. In their opinion, the progress achieved last year at the NATO-Russia Summit in Lisbon and at the summit meeting between the European Union and the Russian Federation should be strengthened. President Türk took the stance that the Council NATO-Russia should gradually gain the position of a decision-making body next to its consultative function. The discussion partners agreed on the significance of the principle of nuclear non-proliferation.

Prior to his visit to Kremlin, President Danilo Türk laid flowers at the graves of Boris Yeltsin, the deceased president of the Russian Federation, the Russian writer and playwright Mikhail Bulgakov and the Russian writer Nikolai Gogol at the Moscow Cemetery Novodevichy.