Mr Major’s Joint Arrival Statement with President Yeltsin – 24 September 1994

Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint arrival statement with President Yeltsin at Brize Norton on Saturday 24th September 1994.

PRIME MINISTER:

I would like to welcome President Yeltsin and Mrs. Yeltsina to the United Kingdom this morning. It is an informal visit and one that Norma and I have been much looking forward to.

The genesis of this weekend is a discussion that the President and I had in Moscow last February when I invited him to join us. We intend it to be an informal occasion; we will have the opportunity to discuss a range of both long-term and short-term issues but we also intend to-spend some time enjoying ourselves. I don’t necessarily therefore expect that we will be issuing a communique at the end – these are discussions that are geared to the long-term – so let me simply say this morning we are delighted to see President Yeltsin and Mrs. Yeltsina with us and they are very welcome guests indeed in the United Kingdom.

PRESIDENT YELTSIN:

I would like to thank Prime Minister John Major and Mrs. Major for the invitation that has been made quite some time ago and of course this is not my first visit here to Britain. I am extremely happy to be here and I certainly remember our previous meetings with the Prime Minister, meetings that gave wonderful results. Now the time has come to compare notes. We have signed quite a number of agreements, we have held talks, we have signed all sorts of documents, now we need this opportunity in order to compare our opinions of whether we are going in the right direction. In my opinion, the state of Russian/British relations is good, the relationship is developing as we envisaged.
As far as international problems are concerned, frankly speaking, I do not recall a single serious issue where our opinions and approaches do not concur but in fact we do have lots of themes to raise during these one-and-a-half days.

I would like to thank the Prime Minister but in my closing remarks I would also like to point out that we are anxiously awaiting the visit of Her Majesty The Queen to Russia; this is going to be a first historic visit and is going to take place from the 17th to the 20th of October.

I would like to pass on my best regards and my best wishes to all those living in Britain and thank you very very much for your hospitality.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you very much. We will have something to say when the President leaves tomorrow lunchtime.