MOSCOW, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russia welcomes mutually beneficial cooperation with German companies, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with top German executives on Friday.
"We value the pragmatism of German businesses and their willingness to work together, and we strive to develop bilateral ties to meet the long-term interests of both countries," Putin said during the annual event at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Putin said that German investment in Russia has exceeded 20 billion U.S. dollars, while Russian investment in Germany has reached almost 10 billion dollars.
Around 5,000 companies with German capital are working in Russia, with their total turnover amounting to 50 billion dollars, he said, adding that bilateral trade grew 20 percent in 2018 to reach 60 billion dollars.
Russia provides more than a third of Germany's energy demand, including 33 percent of the country's oil demand and 35 percent of its natural gas, Putin said.
A new gas pipeline, the Nord Stream-2, is now nearly completed and will double the volume of deliveries of Russian gas via the Baltic route, which will make an additional contribution to meeting the energy demand of Germany and other European countries, strengthening the energy security of the European continent, he said.
Russia, together with German partners, built the 1,224-km-long Nord Stream-1 subsea gas pipeline, which has delivered 55 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe every year since 2011.
