NANCHANG /China/, November 8. /TASS/. The Russian-Chinese cooperation council in Volga-Yangtze format will hold its fourth session in the eastern Chinese city of Nanchang on Wednesday after a three-year pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The format brings together participants from Russia’s Volga Area and Chinese regions located near the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

The council is co-chaired by the Russian president’s plenipotentiary envoy to the Volga Area Federal District Igor Komarov and Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China Zhang Guoqing.

The sides are expected to discuss the entire range of issues that accumulated over the past three years and are related to trade, economic, investment and humanitarian cooperation between the regions of Russia and China.

The Russian side will be represented by delegations from the regions of Bashkortostan, Mari El, Mordovia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Chuvashia, Perm, Kirov, Nizhny Novgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Saratov and Ulyanovsk.

For the first time, business delegations from Russian and Chinese regions will meet simultaneously with the Council.

According to a TASS correspondent, the Russian delegation comprises more than 200 delegates representing over 50 companies from six regions of the Volga Area Federal District. The Chinese business delegation will comprise representatives of over 100 companies.

The main goal of the event is to establish direct ties between companies, search for new partners and ways to broaden ties between the business communities from Russian and Chinese regions.

The mechanism of the Volga-Yangtze dialogue was launched in May 2013. It is aimed at expanding the social, economic and humanitarian cooperation between the regions of Russian and China.

It envisages various forms of cooperation in different areas between Russia’s Volga Area Federal District and Chinese provinces located in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River (Anhui, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi and the city of Chongqing, which is a direct-administered municipality of China).

Russia and China take turns in hosting the event. The council’s first session was held in Ulyanovsk in 2016 and the third one - in Cheboksary in 2019.