Chinese vice premier meets Rosneft CEO

BEIJING, Oct. 17 -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli on Thursday met with Igor Sechin, head of Russia's oil giant Rosneft, in preparation for Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to China.

Medvedev will pay an official visit from Oct. 22 to 23 as a guest of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. During Medvedev's stay in Beijing, he and Li will co-chair the 18th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government.

"Energy cooperation is an important component of the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia," Zhang said during Thursday's meeting.

Hailing energy cooperation between China and Russia, Zhang said the Chinese side will make joint efforts with Russia to give full play to the mutually complementary advantages of each other on geography, resources, market and technology, in order to spur the economic development of the two countries in a sustained and healthy way.

During the meeting, Sechin also pledged the Russian side would be committed to boosting energy cooperation with China.

Earlier this month, Zhang co-chaired the 10th meeting of China-Russia energy cooperation committee in Beijing with his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich to prepare for the Li-Medvedev meeting as well.