China, Russia eye closer all-round cooperation

MOSCOW, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Wednesday voiced China's readiness to work with Russia to strengthen all-round cooperation to lift the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era to a new level.

Li made the remarks when co-chairing the 29th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

The regular meeting, held every year since its inception in 1996, is an important mechanism for implementing the consensus reached by the two countries' heads of state and promoting bilateral cooperation and people-to-people exchanges.

Last December, Li co-chaired the 28th regular meeting with Mishustin in Beijing, where the two sides agreed to further enhance the internal driving force to develop China-Russia relations.

Fully affirming the work of the various committees of the two sides over the past year, Li and Mishustin agreed here on Wednesday that China and Russia have complementary advantages and huge potential for practical cooperation.

They called on the two sides to further optimize the cooperation structure, steadily advance cooperation in traditional areas such as economy and trade, investment, agriculture and energy, and expand cooperation in emerging areas including digital economy, biomedicine and green development.

After the meeting, Li and Mishustin signed a joint communique of the 29th regular meeting between Chinese and Russian heads of government and a new version of the outline of the China-Russia investment cooperation plan.

Later on Wednesday, Li also met at the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who noted that the latest annual meeting between Russian and Chinese heads of government is a strong implementation of the important consensus reached between Chinese President Xi Jinping and him and has yielded fruitful results.

Li said the two heads of state have met twice this year, drawing a new blueprint and injecting strong momentum into further deepening bilateral relations and cooperation, especially at the historical juncture of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Russia.

During Putin's state visit to China in May, Xi pointed out that the two sides should take the 75th anniversary as a new starting point, further synergize development strategies, and continue to enrich bilateral cooperation to bring greater benefits to the two countries and peoples.

Last year, China-Russia two-way trade exceeded 240 billion U.S. dollars, close to 2.7 times that of a decade ago. This is a good indication of the all-round cooperation of mutual benefit that continues to deepen between the two countries.

During his meeting with Putin, Li once again expressed China's willingness to work with Russia to implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, maintain the sound momentum of the development of bilateral relations, expand all-round mutually beneficial cooperation and achieve more practical results.

In the joint communique issued Wednesday, the two sides agreed that joint efforts will be made to optimize trade structure, create new growth points for the two countries' economies and trade, and promote the development of e-commerce.

With 2024 and 2025 designated as the China-Russia Years of Culture, the two sides also agreed to take it as an opportunity to deepen people-to-people exchanges, consolidate popular support for friendship, constantly strengthen the internal driving force of bilateral cooperation, and improve the quality and efficiency of cooperation.

Li also called on the two sides to continue to deepen cultural, tourism, education, youth and sub-national exchanges and cooperation to promote mutual understanding between the two peoples and carry forward China-Russia friendship from generation to generation.