BEIJING, February 25 (Itar-Tass) – Russia expects to arrive at new agreements with China in different sectors before a visit to Russia of Xi Jinping, Secretary General of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Monday at a meeting with China’s Vice Premier Wang Qishan.
The two officials are co-chairmen of the Russian-Chinese commission for energy cooperation. “We are very thoroughly paving the way for the visit of Xi Jinping, scheduled for the end of March. We put much emphasis on that visit, and we are setting ourselves the task to thoroughly prepare for that summit meeting,” he reported. “We have common approaches to the settlement of many problems, both international and bilateral. We expect to arrive at a new set of agreements in very different spheres in the meantime (prior to the visit),” Dvorkovich stressed.
“Russia is satisfied with the way Russian-Chinese cooperation develops both within the framework or our comprehensive, equal and trust-based partnership and strategic cooperation, and within the framework of energy cooperation,” he added.
Wang Qishan, for his part, stressed that since this mechanism of Russian-Chinese energy dialogue was created five years ago, the sides remain in close contact and coordinate their activity.
“Energy cooperation has brought excellent results. Our cooperation expands and deepens in such spheres as gas, oil, atomic energy, power industry and energy efficiency,” he stressed, adding that all this “is of major importance for deepening practical cooperation of the two countries and advancing Chinese-Russian relations of comprehensive strategic cooperation and partnership”.
“Practice has demonstrated far-sightedness of the leaders of the two countries, who made the decision to create such a mechanism,” the Chinese official noted.
“China and Russia are interested in developing energy cooperation. Both countries have their own advantages as for resources, markets and technologies,” Want Qishan said, stressing that the strengthening of bilateral energy cooperation is of special strategic and global importance. Breakthroughs have been seen in this cooperation of late, he marked. During a visit to Beijing last week by the head of Russia’s Rosneft oil company, Igor Sechin, “the sides arrived at major agreements concerning an increase in supplies of crude oil to China”.
The signing of joint documents is expected after the Monday talks of the co-chairmen of the Russian-Chinese commission for energy cooperation.