YEKATERINBURG, Russia, July 8 -- Russia is willing to cooperate with China closely and will keep exploring new orientation of cooperation, said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev while meeting with visiting Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang here Wednesday.

During the meeting, Medvedev also hailed the high level of Russia-China relations and thanked China for organizing a large number of Chinese enterprises representatives to attend the sixth International Industrial Trade Fair of Russia as the Guest of Honor. He stressed the importance to step up bilateral cooperation in more major fields, especially cooperation in key strategic projects.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang echoed Medvedev's comments about the positive status of Sino-Russian relations, saying Chinese government has been attaching great importance to the fact that China has been invited as the first Guest of Honor to the sixth International Industrial Trade Fair of Russia and encouraging more than 130 Chinese major enterprises to send representatives to the fair.

Wang also promised to work with Russia in implementing the consensus reached by leaders of both countries and to make concerted efforts to facilitate the steady growth of bilateral trade. He reviewed the good progress achieved in cooperation of a host of key strategic projects involving such sectors as energy and high-speed railways and wishing a complete success of the fair.

The sixth International Industrial Trade Fair, an annual event held in Yekaterinburg since 2010, opened Wednesday, attracting business delegates from more than 70 countries, including delegates from more than 130 Chinese businesses. The trade fair will end Saturday.