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China Daily Website

Sino-Russian ties continue to improve

Updated: 2012-12-06 02:17
By Zhao Shengnan ( China Daily)

Moscow and Beijing will continue consolidating ties and initiating regular exchanges, including meetings between their leaders, following leadership changes in both countries this year, the Russian ambassador to China said.

Speaking on Monday before the upcoming 17th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian prime ministers in Moscow, Sergei Razov said the two countries' mutual interests have determined the nature and direction of their bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership.

Premier Wen Jiabao is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hold talks with the country's No 2 leader, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on Thursday.

This meeting will be the first since Putin assumed the presidency in May for the second time, and China had its once-a-decade leadership transition at the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in November.

The two sides will ink a series of documents, including a joint communique, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Li Hui told Xinhua News Agency earlier.

"Without exaggeration, the high-level meeting mechanism is an important engine of bilateral cooperation," said Razov, adding that all the topics that will be discussed at the meeting are vital to the future of bilateral relations and need efficient implementation afterward.

Since its establishment in 1997, the mechanism has tremendously boosted bilateral relations through direct and pragmatic dialogue on issues that include trade and culture, he said.

Almost all recent major cooperation projects were launched under the mechanism's framework, said the Russian ambassador, citing the Skovorodino-Mohe oil pipeline and the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station.

Calling China and Russia important trading partners, Razov said bilateral trade volume has soared from $6 billion in 1997 to $80 billion in 2011.

The number in the first 10 months of 2012 reached $73.6 billion, 13.4 percent higher than that of the same period in 2011 amid the lingering global economic slump, according to official statistics.

Both ambassadors said the two countries are exploring new potential areas of cooperation.

Eco-tourism and "green project" investment will stimulate economic and trade cooperation, while the potential for cooperation is huge in such fields as low-carbon technology, energy-efficient products, ecological projects and environmental protection programs, Li said.

"The two countries have established a solid legal foundation for their partnership, and will jointly make more achievements in the spheres of economic and scientific development based on mutual respect and benefits," Razov said.

Speaking of the challenges that Russia-China relations may face, he said the world may still see instability in the near future, which requires the two countries to work with each other more closely.

"But we are confident that our increasingly steady ties are able to tackle external situations and play a positive role in safeguarding political and economic stability both regionally and globally," he said.

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