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Russia, China to sign about 30 accords at premiers’ meeting

MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang will hold a regular meeting in Moscow on Monday. About 30 documents are expected to be signed, a government official said.

The two countries will sign a joint communique and several intergovernmental agreements on cooperation in energy, including Russian gas supplies to China via the so-called “eastern route”, and financial spheres, alongside anti-monopoly regulations, and cooperation in customs and satellite navigation systems, the official told TASS.

A number of commercial deals will be concluded at the meeting, including agreements on broader energy cooperation between Russia's state energy giant Gazprom, top Russian oil producer Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China’s largest oil company.

There are also plans to sign agreements between biggest Russian and Chinese banks, including Russia’s state-owned development bank VEB, VTB bank, Rosselkhozbank, China's Export-Import Bank (EximBank) and China Development Bank (CDB), and between major financial institutions such as Russia's Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), The Russia-China Investment Fund (RCIF) and Russia's Moscow Exchange, the government official said.

Some Russian and Chinese media will sign accords to strengthen cooperation in information sphere. Russia’s state technology firm Rostec, mobile phone operator Megafon, cable operator Comcor-TV will sign agreements on cooperation in technology and telecommunications with China’s Huawei Technologies, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Inspur Group and other companies.

Also Russia and China will sign on Monday a number of intergovernmental agreements on energy cooperation, including one on a $400 billion natural gas deal agreed in May, a Russian government source said.

The intergovernmental agreement to seal the deal to supply Russian natural gas to China via an eastern route will be signed during a meeting of the two countries’ prime ministers, Dmitry Medvedev and Li Keqiang, in Moscow, the source said.

Russia’s gas producer Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed in May that Russia will supply China with 38 billion cubic metres of gas starting from 2018-2019. The deal now needs the signature of both governments. According to a Russian government document, the agreement between the Chinese and Russian governments is a condition under which the deal, signed in May, can come into force.

“Energy remains the driver of economic cooperation between Russia and China,” the government source said. “Our countries are consistently moving towards forming a strategic energy alliance.”

Russia's state-controlled oil and gas giants, OAO Rosneft and OAO Gazprom, will also sign agreements to deepen energy cooperation with China National Petroleum Corporation.

“This year marks a breakthrough in gas sphere,” the source said, noting that the two countries also had “a common understanding of the need to intensify negotiations on western route supplies”.

Natural gas will be supplied to China via the east-bound Sila Sibiri (Power of Siberia) pipeline, the construction of which was launched by President Vladimir Putin on September 1.

Gazprom has said it is capable of more than doubling natural gas supplies to China to 100 billion cubic meters annually, including via the western route connecting fields in Western Siberia with northwest China through the Altai republic.