KAZAN, May 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China highlights the strategic partnership between the two countries, Konstantin Kosachev, Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev said in an interview with TASS.

"The fact that the Russian leader visited China in the first foreign trip of his new term in office <...> makes it clear that Russia-China cooperation is really about comprehensive strategic partnership, which is how our doctrinal documents describe it. The two countries have found each other and now stand shoulder-to-shoulder and back-to-back, moving forward and clearly realizing what China can do to prevent harm to Russia and what Russia can do to prevent harm to China," the senator said on the sidelines of the Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum international event.

He pointed out that it was a mutually beneficial and promising partnership. Kosachev noted that Chinese President Xi Jinping had chosen Russia for his first foreign visit after re-election.

The Federation Council deputy speaker also said that Russia’s delegation included a number of deputy prime ministers and ministers. According to him, it shows that bilateral cooperation is not just about Russian energy supplies to China and Chinese consumer goods exports to Russia. "Undoubtedly, there are a lot of breakthrough areas, including space exploration, the Northern Sea Route, digitization and scientific research. We are taking an increasing interest in each other in all these fields, particularly because our Western partners, who used to be no less interesting, are now trying to cut us off from this research," the politician explained.

In Kosachev’s view, the two countries have to be more self-sufficient, rely more on themselves and "look for more possibilities in each other in order to move forward smoothly." "Hence the delegation’s makeup and the broad agenda of the talks in Beijing and Harbin," Kosachev concluded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a state visit to China on May 16-17.