China, Russia pledge stronger cooperation in trade, energy

SHANGHAI, May 20 -- China and Russia on Tuesday vowed to beef up cooperation in a wide range of fields, including finance, trade, energy and transportation infrastructure.

The pledge came in a joint statement during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin is in China for the 4th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in Shanghai and a state visit at the invitation of President Xi Jinping. Xi held talks with Putin in Shanghai on Tuesday.

According to the joint statement, the two countries will expand local currency settlement for bilateral trade, cross-border investment and financing and will strengthen exchanges for the formulation of macro-economic policies.

The two pledged to increase bilateral trade to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2015 and 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2020 from nearly 90 billion U.S. dollars last year.

The two will work to ensure balanced trade, optimize trade structure and expand mutual investment in fields like transportation infrastructure, mining development, and housing projects in Russia, said the statement.

The two sides vowed to deepen cooperation in the petroleum industry, kick-start Russia's supply of natural gas to China as soon as possible and jointly develop coal mines in Russia. The two also will consider jointly building power plants in Russia to increase power supply to China.

The two countries will strengthen cooperation in major projects in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, civil aviation, research on basic aerospace technologies, satellite navigation and manned space flight, said the statement.

The two will speed up the construction of cross-border transportation infrastructure, including bridges on cross-border rivers, and Russia will facilitate China's goods shipment using its railway networks, ports and through the Northern Sea route, said the statement.

The countries also pledged constructive cooperation in the use and protection of water resources in cross-border rivers as well as in the establishment of cross-border nature reserves to protect biodiversity.