ST. PETERSBURG, May 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and China are negotiating joint projects of Mars and Venus exploration, Russian Federal Space Agency deputy head Sergey Savelyev told ITAR-TASS on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg.

“We have been engaged in an active dialogue since last year, and our Chinese partners have expressed interest in our proposals for joint implementation of large-scale scientific projects,” he said. “Combined efforts would help to reduce costs and time, and to achieve the objectives of the Russian and Chinese national programmes.”

“Negotiations are underway on the joint exploration of Mars and Venus,” Savelyev said. “We have held a number of meetings with experts and scientists on these projects, but there are no specific agreements yet. I think this year we will be more definite about how we are going to cooperate in this sphere.”

For a start, it was necessary to determine principles of joint work, terms and conditions of project implementation, alongside distribution of responsibility and authority, he said, adding that as soon as these things were ready, the countries’ space agencies would conclude an agreement.