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Medvedev to pay official visit to China

Talks bettween the prime ministers will concern a wide range of matters relating to trade-and-economic and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries
Photo ITAR-TASS/Alexander Astafyev
Photo ITAR-TASS/Alexander Astafyev

BEIJING, October 21 (Itar-Tass). — Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of the Russian Federation will pay an official visit to China from October 21 to 23 at the invitation of Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the government press service reports.

"The main event during the tour will be the 18th regular meeting between heads of government of Russia and China. The meeting is due to be held in Beijing on October 22," a press service official pointed out. During the visit, Medvedev is also to meet with other leaders of the PRC.

"The forthcoming talks within the framework of the meeting between the Heads of Government will concern a wide range of matters relating to trade-and-economic and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries. Special attention is to be devoted to such tasks significant to bilateral cooperation as an increase in the scope and refinement of the pattern of reciprocal trade, the development of investment interaction between the two states, the implementation of large-scale projects, energy projects and the strengthening of industrial co-production arrangements," the press service official said.

In the humanitarian sphere, the Premiers of the two countries are to sum up the results of the reciprocal Years of Tourism of 2012-2013, to estimate readiness for the observance of the Russia-China Years of Youth Exchanges in 2014-2015, and discuss a number of other themes.

"As a result of the meeting, the Heads of Government of Russia and China are to sign a number of bilateral inter-agency and corporate documents aimed at furthering Russo-Chinese practical interaction in various fields,"' an RF government official pointed out.

On the concluding day of the tour, the RF Head of Government will visit the city of Hefei in Anhoi Province, scientific and innovation center of China, where he will meet with students and faculty members of Chinese University of Science and Technology.

In recent years, Russo-Chinese relations have been invariably manifesting a high dynamism, a source in the Russian delegation pointed out. China retains the status of Russia's major foreign-trading partner. In 2012, bilateral trade ran at $87.5 billion, growing by 5.2% as compared with that in 2011. In the January-July period of this year, Russo-Chinese trade amounted to $49.6 billion (0.5% up as compared with that in the corresponding period of last year). In the field of reciprocal trade, the sides in 2012 set a task of bringing its scope up to $100 billion by 2015 and to $200 billion by 2020.

One of subjects for discussion during the forthcoming visit, according to an RF government staff member, will be the expansion of investment cooperation. Russia’s Foreign Ministry official mentioned as a positive example the implementation of Russo-Chinese programs for cooperation in the development and use of forest resources (those in Tomsk Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, and Irkutsk Region), the completion of the project to build a "Fuiao Glass Industry Group" to produce automobile glass in Kaluga Region with investments amounting to over EUR300 million and creation of 900 jobs.

As far as the fuel-and-energy sector is concerned, the sides have begun to implement intergovernmental agreements on giving greater scope to trade in crude oil, as well as on building a jointly-run oil processing complex in Tianjing. Work is being continued on a large-scale gas project. Priorities have been determined: an "Eastern corridor" of the export of Russia's gas to China via a pipeline.

A source of Itar-Tass points out: "The prospect of deliveries of liquefied gas to the PRC is opening up new horizons in energy cooperation. The Chinese side completes the process of entering the large-scale project 'Yamal-LNG'. Plans have been charted out to advance cooperation in the coal sphere, including a comprehensive development of coal resources, the production of liquid fuel from coal, a contract-based construction of coalmines, the deliveries of equipment for coal-industry enterprises, and scientific and technical exchanges".

In the field of developing nuclear power engineering, the two countries began to implement a project to build the second phase (3rd and 4th power units) of Tian Wen nuclear power station: the "first concrete" was placed into the foundation of Power Unit 3 in December 2012 and that for Power Unit 4 in September this year.

Plans have been mapped out for cooperation in the attraction of investments and Chinese companies' participation in building transport infrastructure facilities in Russia's territory. The start of the construction of a railway bridge Nizhneleninskoye- Tungjiang, and other projects are in the order of the day.

The interlocutor of Itar-Tass said in conclusion, "The situation in the Middle East and in North Africa is among the main topical international themes on which Moscow and Beijing are focusing their attention. We jointly come out in favor of peaceful, evolutionary changes in the region; we condemn violence wherever it comes from. Russia and China welcome Syria's decision to join the Convention banning chemical weapons; we favor the earliest convocation of the Geneva-2 conference to discuss a political solution to the Syrian problem; and we do not accept attempts at legitimatizing the policy of the dictates of force through UN Security Council resolutions."