China, Russia vow to advance cooperation

BEIJING, May 19 -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang on Monday held talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minster Dmitry Rogozin in Beijing.

Wang, also Chinese Chairperson of the Joint Commission for the Regular Prime Ministers' Meetings of China and Russia, praised the close and effective coordination between the two governments, saying the two sides have made full preparation for the upcoming meeting between the two leaders in Shanghai.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to China from May 20 to 21 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend the fourth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in Shanghai.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said last week that China and Russia are expected to reach agreements on natural gas during Putin's visit.

Wang called on the two sides to give full play to the role of the high-level supervision working group on bilateral strategic projects, and actively push forward key cooperative projects, to boost bilateral pragmatic cooperation and achieve mutual benefits.

Rogozin, the Russian chairman of the intergovernmental commission, said Russia is willing to work with China to improve the efficiency of the cooperative mechanisms between the two governments, expand the areas of cooperation and actively push forward bilateral cooperation on strategic projects.