BLAGOVESHCHENSK, May 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin's state visit to China on May 16-17 exceeded all expectations and gave an impetus to the development of bilateral relations, including in the Far East regions, First Deputy Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs, former Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov told TASS on the sidelines of the Russian-Chinese AmurExpo-2024 economic forum.
"There is a Chinese expression that translates as 'to exceed all expectations.' So, this kind of assessment of the visit [of the Russian president to China] is not only relevant, but the only possible one. It was planned, prepared, and eventually realized as a big state action. <...> It is especially important that for the first time a while our president’s state visit to China included two cities - Beijing and Harbin. The place of the visit was chosen given the symbolic significance that Harbin has in our relations' history," Denisov said.
He also noted the uniqueness of the negotiations themselves. Despite the fact that the heads of state are the main participants in such events, "there was also work" for an impressive number of top government leaders from both sides. Thus, six deputy prime ministers, ministers, two State Duma deputy speakers, and the leadership of the Russian presidential office came to China.
"It would take a long time to list the heads of even the central bodies, but there were quite a lot of local regional leaders from our side as well. As far as I know, representatives of 25 regions took part in the Harbin events, with 17 heads of federal subjects among them. This has never happened before. We must not lose the impetus that such political events give to bilateral relations. Therefore, the fact that the Amur Economic Forum is being held literally at the same time is very appropriate and the timing is very well chosen. Therefore, we expect that this impetus will be picked up and promoted further at the regional and local level, concerning the entire Far East," the agency source added.
The city of Blagoveshchensk has been hosting AmurExpo since 1992. After a break caused by the coronavirus pandemic, AmurExpo was held in a hybrid (in-person&online) format in 2022 and aroused great interest among representatives of regions and businesses. Last year, more than 20 events of the business program took place during the forum. Representatives of 15 Russian regions, as well as other countries, namely China, Pakistan and India took part in these events.