News conference following Russian-German talks

Following the Russian-German talks, Vladimir Putin and Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel made statements for the press and answered journalists’ questions. President of Russia Vladimir Putin:  Madam Federal Chancellor, ladies and gentlemen, We are pleased to welcome Federal Chancellor of Germany  Angela Merkel  to Moscow during her working visit. During today’s substantive and useful talks we touched upon the key issues of our bilateral relations in politics, the economy, and cultural and humanitarian area.

And, of course, we had a detailed discussion of a number of international problems. Let me underscore that Russia is committed to building up cooperation with the Federal Republic on the principles of respect, equality, mutual benefit and consideration for each other’s interests. Germany is one of Russia’s biggest international economic partners; it follows the People’s Republic of China in terms of trade.

The Russia-Germany trade amounted to $43.8 billion in January to October 2019. German investments in Russia total $20 billion whereas the reciprocal Russian investments in the economy of the Federal Republic stand at $9 billion. Russia and Germany have a number of large energy projects to their credit.

We highly appreciate the responsible position of the German Government in support of the widely known Nord Stream 2 project. During the talks, we also spoke about the issues related to the continuation of the Russian gas transit through the territory of Ukraine. We noted the importance of the agreements reached on December 31 by Gazprom and its Ukrainian partners under which the transit of gas will continue in the coming five years.

These agreements are mutually advantageous and balanced both for Russia and Ukraine and they definitely meet the interests of the European consumers of Russian energy resources. The focus during the discussion of the international and regional agenda was on Libya where, unfortunately, large-scale hostilities are ongoing, terrorist activities are on the rise while the economy and the social sphere are in decline, to everyone’s regret. All that undermines security and stability not just in that region but also has negative implications for Europe.

I mean illegal migration, smuggling, and arms and drug trafficking. It is crucial to put an end to the armed confrontation between Marshal Haftar’s Libyan National Army and the Government of National Accord of Mr Sarraj, to establish ceasefire and take steps to restart the political process with the ultimate goal of overcoming the split inside the country and forming national state institutions. It is these goals that we highlighted in the joint statement made recently by President of Turkey and me, calling on the conflicting sides in Libya to cease hostilities starting at midnight today.

I gave a detailed account to the Federal Chancellor of the work we did in Istanbul. We consider Germany’s initiative to hold an international conference on Libya in Berlin to be timely. For the Berlin conference to yield solid results it is necessary to ensure the participation of the states that are really interested in helping the Libya settlement, and the key issue is that its decisions must be previously agreed on with the Libyan parties.

Ghassan Salamé, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Libya, should also play a role in that. Naturally, we did not neglect the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic during the talks. I shared with Madam Chancellor the results of my recent visit to Damascus and the talks with President al- Assad .

We can confidently state that the situation in that country is stabilising. Syria is slowly returning to peaceful life, and its statehood is being restored. Russia and Germany share the view that the final resolution of the conflict in Syria can be achieved exclusively by political means in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254.

The main thing is for the Syrian people to have an opportunity to freely and independently determine their future, the future of their nation. It is exactly this approach that underlies the formation of the Constitutional Committee. The Committee has already held two sessions in Geneva and established an editorial commission that will draft constitutional foundations for the Syrian state.

At the same time, Russia together with Turkey and Iran will continue to support the Committee as far as possible within the Astana format framework. We also discussed the issues of post-conflict restoration of Syria, improving the humanitarian situation and ensuring the safe return of the refugees. All responsible members of the international community have to join their efforts so as to help the Syrian state bodies, and Syrians in the broadest sense, to restore infrastructure facilities, water and power supply, hospitals and schools.

Meanwhile, any help to Syria must be rendered with proper approval from the legitimate authorities and cover all the affected territories without preconditions and politicisation. We certainly could not ignore another issue which is vitally important not only for the region but also for the whole world – the issue of preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran’s nuclear programme. After the United States withdrew from this fundamental agreement, the Iranian side declared that they suspended some of their voluntary commitments under the JCPOA.

Let me underscore this – they only suspended their voluntary commitments while they stress their readiness to go back to full compliance with the nuclear deal. Russia and Germany resolutely stand for the continued implementation of the Joint Plan. The Iranians are entitled to a support from European nations, which promised to set up a special financial vehicle separate from the US dollar to be used in trade settlements with Iran.

The Instrument in Support of  Trade Exchanges  ( INSTEX ) must finally begin working. Ms Merkel and I spoke in detail about the resolution of the intra-Ukrainian crisis. We share the opinion that there is no alternative to the Minsk agreements in normalising the situation in Ukraine’s southeast.

It is crucial that the concrete tasks set during our recent Normandy format meetings should be implemented. We hope that the Ukrainian side will start implementing the agreements on the political settlement. Extending the law on the special status of Donbass is a good move in the right direction.

However, the law must not have a time limit, as it is stipulated in the Minsk agreements. The special status of Donbass must be fixed in the Ukrainian Constitution, as it is also stated in the Minsk agreements. We are aware of all the challenges in the internal political process in Ukraine; however, if all the parties concerned want a final settlement, they should follow the Minsk agreements.

To conclude, let me stress again that during our talks with Madam Federal Chancellor we managed to substantively and constructively discuss many important issues relating to both Russia-Germany relations and the stability and security in the Middle East and the whole world. I would like to sincerely thank the Federal Chancellor for today’s productive joint work. Thank you for your attention.

Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel  (retranslated) :  I would also like to express how grateful I am for this invitation to come to Moscow and for this opportunity to have very detailed and in-depth talks on both bilateral and international matters. Actually, we can say that despite certain obstacles such as sanctions over Ukraine, we have very intensive economic relations in the fields of science and university education. Russia and Germany maintain intensive contacts and cooperation, and the citizens of our countries are closely interacting as well.

This is very constructive. Of course, we also talked about the Nord Stream project. It has been legitimised by means of the new European law.

We need to carry it through. It is gratifying that a positive five-year agreement has been reached regarding gas transit via Ukraine. We also monitored the developments around the opening of TurkStream.

Germany and other European countries will benefit from Nord Stream. Nord Stream 1 is operational, while Nord Stream 2 is yet to be completed. All the sides are interested in diversifying gas supplies and will continue working towards this.

But it is a very important project nevertheless. We discussed international conflicts as well. First of all, I&nb...