Chinese premier arrives in Russia for official visit

MOSCOW, Oct. 12 -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived here Sunday afternoon for an official visit to Russia, with a series of deals ranging from energy to people-to-people exchanges expected to be signed.

Li was greeted with a warm welcome ceremony upon his arrival.

On the occasion, he said the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia has entered a new stage of development.

"With my visit, I am looking forward to further deepening the traditional friendship between China and Russia, and expanding our pragmatic cooperation, so as to achieve greater advancement in the development of bilateral ties," Li said.

During his visit, Li will attend the 19th China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting with his counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, and an international forum themed on innovation.

Li will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council or the upper house of parliament, and Sergei Naryshkin, speaker of the State Duma or the lower house of parliament.

The two sides are expected to ink about 50 mutually beneficial agreements and reach new consensus in the areas of energy, high-speed rail and finance.

Analysts believe that Li's three-day visit, his first to Russia since he took office in March 2013, will inject new impetus into the two countries' practical cooperation and their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

Experts say that the diplomatic relations between the two countries, which were established 65 years ago, are at an "all-time high point" with frequent exchanges of high-level visits, surging trade and investment, and an increasing number of large-scale projects.

The trade between China and Russia reached 89.2 billion U.S. dollars last year and plans are afoot to raise the volume to 100 billion dollars by 2015 and to 200 billion by 2020.

Before Russia, Li visited Germany, the first leg of his three-nation tour, which will also take him to Italy.