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Kremlin: western route gas contract may be signed during Putin’s visit to China

The 2,700-kilometer-long western route envisages the supply of 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually from gas deposits in West Siberia

© EPA/TASS/ SONG FULAI

MOSCOW, July 28 /TASS/. A contract for gas deliveries via Western route may be signed during President Putin’s visit to China if all the details are finalized by that time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Tuesday.

"If everything is ready, the visit will certainly become a good pretext for striking this deal," Peskov said.

Peskov called attention to the fact that the presidential administration has never used the practice of intentionally using foreign visits as a pretext for signing documents. "If the sides manage to reach any agreements, then the visit may naturally be used as a floor for signing some documents," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"There are no concrete plans for the visit so far," Peskov went on to say adding that the list of documents was still being prepared. "The process is far from being over," Peskov concluded.

Russia and China are planning to build a gas pipeline system via the western and eastern routes.

The eastern route stipulates the supply of 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually from gas deposits in Yakutia in northeast Russia and the Irkutsk Region in East Siberia via the Power of Siberia gas pipeline.

The 2,700-kilometer-long western route envisages the supply of 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually from gas deposits in West Siberia.

The western route, called Power of Siberia-2, is intended to run across the highly mountainous area of the Altai region in West Siberia to China.

On May 8, 2015 Russia and China signed a framework agreement on the main terms of gas deliveries via the western route.

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