Pressemøde den 26. april 2011

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Statsministeren: ”Det er en stor fornøjelse for mig at være vært for premierminister Putin, som for første gang aflægger officielt besøg i Danmark. Den danske regering tillægger dette besøg stor betydning. Fra dansk side ønsker vi yderligere at styrke og udbygge samarbejdet med Rusland. Rusland er en meget vigtig partner. Danmark og Rusland har mange fælles interesser – det gælder økonomisk, som det gælder politisk. Og premierminister Putin og jeg har i dag talt om, hvordan vi yderligere kan styrke moderniseringspartnerskabet mellem Danmark og Rusland – både på det økonomiske og det politiske område. På det økonomiske område er de gensidige interesser oplagte. Begge sider ønsker at styrke samhandlen og investeringerne til fordel for både den danske og den russiske økonomi. Og som et konkret udtryk herfor har premierminister Putin og jeg netop overværet underskrivelsen af en række aftaler mellem såvel russiske og danske myndigheder – som russiske og danske virksomheder.

Det russiske marked, det er stort, og det er voksende. Og det er i virkeligheden meget tættere på Danmark, end man tror. Flyvetiden fra Danmark til den vestlige del af Rusland er jo under 2 timer, og Østersøen er en uhyre effektiv transportvej.

Fra dansk side er der stor interesse i, at den russiske økonomi integreres yderligere med EU’s økonomi. Russisk medlemskab af verdenshandelsorganisationen WTO er her også af stor betydning. Og jeg vil gerne udtrykke det håb og det ønske, at 2011 bliver året, hvor Rusland bliver medlem af verdenshandelsorganisationen.

Politisk set har vi også klare fælles interesser. Vi arbejder begge for en bæredygtig udvikling i Arktis og Østersøen, og vi har en fælles interesse i at håndtere udviklingen i Afghanistan og sikre, at ustabilitet ikke spreder sig til Afghanistans naboregioner.

Jeg vil også gerne fremhæve min tilfredshed med den hyppige og nyttige politiske dialog mellem Danmark og Rusland. Det er faktisk fjerde gang inden for kun 11⁄2 år, at premierminister Putin og jeg mødes. Der er en konstruktiv dialog mellem Rusland og Danmark – også på områder, hvor vi ikke er enige.

Mødet her i dag, det russiske statsbesøg i Danmark for 1 år siden og de mange møder mellem danske og russiske ministre bidrager til at styrke dialogen og samarbejdet. Og Hendes Majestæt Dronningens statsbesøg i Rusland den 6. til 9. september i år vil være endnu en markant milesten i forholdet mellem Danmark og Rusland.

Tak!

Premierminister Putin: Thank you very much. Dear Ladies and Gentlemen. We have conducted very meaningful talks and I cannot even remember now where we do not agree. I think we agree on all the issues; at least on the issue that we have discussed, the trade and the economic ties. And I would like to point out that we are satisfied with that development. I would like to underline that relations between Russia and Denmark are developing successfully. We are strengthening the ties between parliaments, inter-agency ties and inter-parliamentary ties. I believe that the development of our cooperation will be supported by the whole package of documents signed here and there and the presence of mass media witnessed their signature.

Here we develop our cooperation in agriculture, transport, energy and technology cooperation in several areas. We overcome the consequences of the world crisis, we are recovering the economy and in 2010 the good turn-over has increased more than 4 per cent and during the first two months it has risen by 34 per cent in comparison with that period of last year. We will work on establishing favorable conditions for investment cooperation in 25 regions of the Russian Federation – more than 200 Danish companies work. Russian and Danish specialists work on innovative medicines to cure oncologic diseases. There are other examples of cooperation – not only in pharmaceuticals, but also in other high technology areas, where interest is strengthening the closest cooperation in all our partners. In transport for example, one of the leaders is undoubtedly Møller Maersk, a Danish company that has already opened two lines, one to the north of Africa and another one to Latin-America that can have these areas of the world .......... We are ready to expand our cooperation not only in developing the transport communications, but also on the production of the equipment and to develop transport and port infrastructure in Russia.

Today we discussed very specifically and in detail the volume of work that can be very large. And in the evening we will have a meeting with representatives of the Danish business circles and we will discuss the development of business relations. Special place is taken in our relations with energy efficiency. Today we signed the relevant documents in this area, and here Denmark is a very good example of developing economy by decreasing their energy, and we would like to use this experience and to use the experience from our colleagues in this very important area. And once again I would like to thank Mr. Prime Minister for the decision of Denmark, as a result of which the Russians have the right to constrain their North Stream to the Baltic Sea as an economic zone of Denmark. And I would like to inform our colleagues that we are finishing this work in July. The middle time part will be finished on 15th May and there were no problems in terms of the remains of the war at the bottom of the Baltic Sea or economic problems. Everything is in order. In July the gas would be put into the pipeline and in October/November our European customers would get their gas. For the first time, the Russian gas would be on the Danish market and two billion cubic metres of gas with the prospect of increase. The construction Danish company works in Russia, including construction of facilities for the ...... And a special place and talks were the cooperation in the Arctic. Our countries, that have boarders to the Arctic Ocean have a special responsibility and are satisfied with the quality of our interaction the Arctic Region and we both believe that all the arisen issues should be settled by the Arctic countries on the basis of existing, international norms and the UN Convention on the law of the Sea that is one of the main principles of the Group of Five. We informed our colleagues that we are increasing the amount of ships that go along the north route and we believe, and our experts believe, that in the years to come there might be a tenfold increase of the amount of ships going through the northern route, because it is less expensive than the Suez channel and so it decreases the transport expenses. It decreases the cost of the goods. It is a fact that the first foreign ships that took the north route, were Danish ships. By the way, we have taken the decision – and I have not said it to Mr. Rasmussen – that we are continuing to construct the ships to use in this waters and one of the ice-breakers that would be one of the most modern ones. Its name will be Vitus Bering. He was a citizen of Denmark, and secondly, he was a Russian scientist, who worked in this area, and I think that by the end of 2012 she will be put into water in St. Petersburg, and she will work in the area where Vitus Bering was working and I take this opportunity to invite the Danish specialist to form arctic in the territory of dialogue that the Russian ...... society is organizing. It will take place in ....... in autumn this year and it will be devoted to the North Sea Route and I once again thank our colleagues for meaningful talks, for the intention to further develop the cooperation with the Russian Federation. I thank you for your attention.

Statsministeren: Tak for det, så kan vi tage to gange to spørgsmål, skal vi starte med TV 2!

Spørger: Uffe Dresen, dansk TV 2. Jeg har et spørgsmål til Dem hr. Putin. De er jo kendt for at holde deres karriereambitioner hen i det uvisse. Men derfor vil jeg gerne høre Deres kommentar til en artikel, jeg læste i britiske Financial Times, som opfordrer Dem til at opgive alle planer om at blive præsident igen, hvis De skulle have sådanne nogle planer. For at sikre Deres plads i historien burde De i stedet for bakke op om Deres nuværende – efterfølgeren på præsidentposten og sikre, at han kan få den nødvendige styrke til at reformere og blive den store reformator. Hvad siger De til det?

Premierminister Putin: The respective candidates for the President of The Russian Federation do not need support from abroad. The future candidates for the President of Russia need the support of the Russian people.

Spørger: A question from the Russian journalist, the First Channel, Mr. Videf: “Mr. Putin, you have taken active participation in the settlement of issues in the Pekalova factory and today we signed the agreement on the modernization of the production facility. Do you think that it will settle the problem of the citizens of the Pekalova region?

Premierminister Putin: Yes, if you mean that in Pekolova there are three production facilities. The implementation of today’s agreement with Danish colleagues would touch upon two directions of the areas of the facility; the production of cement and the production of the necessary materials for the aluminum industry. They are very relevant, very high in demand. There are chances to implement them. If we implement them, the economic situation of the Pekolova facility would be stabilized, improved, there will be created very well paid jobs. The technical improvement that the facility will produce and their goods will be in high demand, not only in Russia, but also abroad.

Spørger: Berlingske. Et spørgsmål til premierminister Putin. De har kaldt missionen i Libyen for et kristent korstog. Kan De uddybe, hvad De mener med det.

Premierminister Putin: The Danish mass media are not interested in the result of the talks. This is strange, because I have said that 200 Danish companies work in Russia and from our view their economic situation depends upon that there is a very large amount on cooperation that supports a large amount of jobs in Denmark, and if you are interested in my attitude to Libya, to the events in Libya, look at the map of this region of the world. There are monarchies there, all over the place. Are there democracies there according to the Danish example the Monarchic States on the whole that corresponds to the mentality of the people. Mr. Gadaffi has invented a new monarchy like Napoleon after he came to power after the revolution. He said that he was an emperor. Maybe it is not a very correct comparison, but I think it is in place here. That it is a Monarchy, maybe with deficiencies, abnormal one, but there were internal contradictions that went into the military tensions. Why do we need to involve ourselves in these events. If we have some regimes with abnormalities, do we have to involve in all of them? Look at Somalia in Africa, why don’t we put order there? Or in other areas of the world, will we bomb these countries? We need to give people the chance to settle these issues themselves. We have spoken about the close of the sky. But where is it, if they bomb the palace of Mr. Gadaffi. They said that they do not want to destruct him, but why do they bomb the palaces? And people are dying because of these attacks. Mr. Gadaffi is not, because he is hiding somewhere, and the peaceful citizens are dying. And now they are saying that they do not want to kill Gadaffi, and now some officials say “yes, we want to destruct him”. And who has allowed this? Have there been some court proceedings? Who took the right to kill a person, irrespective of who he is? And everybody is silent. And once again, there is a resolution. Read the resolution. It is an appeal to do everything they want in Libya, and I repeat: First of all, they were talking about the close sky and now they destruct all the infrastructure of the country and one of the parties, that is weighing this military actions is attacking, and it will continue, and I think that we should act in the framework of international law, thinking about our responsibility, where we care about peaceful citizens. And when also ...... society with all its power, attack a small country destruction their infrastructure that has been developed by generations, I don’t know - whether it is good or not, but I don’t like it.

And the final question from the Russian journalist from Interfax:
It’s about the results of the talks, we talked about the prospects of energy dialogue. I would like to clarify that Denmark has an option for the gas and the contradictions in their price forming and the formula, and the second one: The cooperation with the Arctic Council – is there an understanding on the results of the talks with Denmark as a partner of Russia. Will we cooperate within this region that some believe to be the gold place or will we not cooperate and as for the prospects of expanding the Arctic Council on the basis of these talks?

Statsministeren: Tak for det. Omkring energisamarbejde, der er det sådan, at det danske energiselskab DONG allerede aftager russisk gas. Og det perspektiv, der ligger i, at Northstream-ledningen færdiggøres, er selvfølgelig, at det kan være med til at øge dansk energisikkerhed, fordi det skaber en bedre mulighed for os at indtage russisk gas på linje med forsyninger fra andre områder. Så det er der bestemt et perspektiv i. Der er jo også et perspektiv i at spare på gassen, og det gør vi en del ud af i Danmark, og det har også været et af omdrejningspunkterne for vores drøftelse her i dag – de danske erfaringer med en øget energieffektivitet. Jeg har komplimenteret premierminister Putin for meget ambitiøse russiske målsætninger om at øge energieffektiviteten – jeg tror med 40 procent – og mener, at der her er et oplagt sted for et tættere forretningsmæssigt samarbejde vores lande imellem.

Hvad angår Arktisk Råd, så har vi et godt og konstruktivt samarbejde. Vi ser begge frem til det møde, der skal være i Nuuk den 12. maj. Og på vores møde her i dag har vi også drøftet muligheden af et tættere bilateralt samarbejde, blandt andet på forskningsområder – det deltager Danmark gerne i.

Jeg håber så også, at mødet i Nuuk den 12. maj vil være det møde, hvor man får tilendebragt de drøftelser, der har været om at give en række lande observatørstatus til Arktisk Råd. Det er drøftelser, der stadig pågår. Men det danske synspunkt er, at det naturligvis er kyststaterne, der skal være kernen i det Arktiske Råd, men der er stor international interesse og stor international bevågenhed på det arktiske område, og derfor synes vi fra dansk side, at det vil være naturligt, at Arktisk Råd åbnes op, således at en række lande gives en limiteret observatørstatus.

Premierminister Putin: We have not been supplying gas to Denmark, but we have signed contracts, and contracts are signed then or the issues are resolved including the price issues. I will repeat: After the construction of the first line, that is 1 billion cubic metres of gas, and after the second line, another 1 billion. That is the increase of 2 billion cubic metres and these contracts have not been signed. That is very timely that we implement these contracts. I mean the difficulties in the world energy after the catastrophe in Japan, it is clear that at least the nuclear reactors in Japan would not be increasing – I will put it mildly – and it means that the demand for carbon would be increasing.

So, from the economic point of view, hydrogen fuel is the cleanest one. And in Europe we know that nuclear reactors are decreasing and that the events in the northern Africa and the Middle East is not improving the nuclear energy.

A colleague has been asked about Libya. Libya, by the way, according to their own reserves has the first place in Africa and guess who is in the fourth place in Africa. And here we have the question. Maybe that is the main object of interest to those, who are involved there. But we take full responsibility and a very responsible attitude to the situation, where we are ready to increase our supplies to the Asia Pacific region and to Europe.

And today we have now been discussing these issues, but on the whole, with main European partners we talk about the construction of the South Stream, about the expansion of the opportunities of the North Stream. At least we will work on that. We are talking with Danish companies to work in the north of Europe, in the Arctic region, that is their work in their reserves, their usage of Danish companies in the construction of relevant port facilities, the acceptance of goods, the shipment to the shores. That is a very large amount of work, and we believe it possible to involve the Danish companies to reconstruct the board facilities in Kaliningrad, in the Black Sea, in the Far East. And as for the North Council, I believe that, first of all, that is the task of the Arctic Council, but we are open to dialogue for everybody, who shows interest in joint work in the Arctic.

Statsministeren: Tak skal I have.”