BEIJING, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China plan to reach a record figure of $90 billion in annual bilateral trade this year, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, said on Tuesday.
The speaker of the Federation Council, who is currently on an official visit to China, said the earlier forecasted and approved figures of bilateral trade of $100 billion in 2015 and of $200 billion by 2020 were “absolutely realistic”.
She said such results could be accomplished by means of diversification of lists of goods, mutual trade and expansion of mutual cooperation spheres. “This is absolutely a new quality of economic cooperation in our trade interaction,” Matviyenko said.
According to Matviyenko, breakthrough agreements between Russia and China on the development of mutual energy cooperation will enable the two countries to form a certain type of “Russian-Chinese energy alliance”.
Matviyenko held on Tuesday a number of bilateral meetings with high-ranking Chinese officials, including with President Xi Jinping, Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhang Dejiang and State Council Premier Li Keqiang.
The meetings focused on a wide range of issues and following the talks Matviyenko stated that relations between Russia and China reached the best level ever in their entire history.
Russia and China recently achieved a significant boost in their bilateral relations, primarily in the economic, energy, space and scientific, as well as military spheres.
One of the milestone deals between the countries was signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China in May and it was an agreement on the Russian natural gas supplies to China.
Russian energy giant Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a 30-year contract on Russian natural gas supplies to China via the eastern route worth a total of $400 billion.
Over the past few years, the two countries have noticeably increased the intensity of their contacts. China has become Russia’s major trade partner while Russia is in the top ten of China’s main trade partners. In 2002-2013, bilateral trade hiked from $12 billion to $89.2 billion.