Li-Medvedev meeting to boost cooperation

BEIJING - The upcoming meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government will promote implementation of bilateral pragmatic cooperation, Russian ambassador to China Andrei Denisov told Xinhua.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will pay an official visit to China from October 22 to 23 as a guest of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. During Medvedev's stay in Beijing, he and Li will co-chair the 18th regular meeting between the Chinese and Russian heads of government.

The two leaders are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation in the economy, trade and cultural exchanges, and exchange views on major political affairs, according to Denisov.

Discussions on topics including energy, investment and cooperation at local levels would be especially important, he said.

In his first foreign trip since taking office, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Russia in March. Xi and President Vladimir Putin have drawn a blueprint for the development of bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

Xi and Putin made it clear that a major task for the two sides is to turn high-level political relations into fruitful results of pragmatic cooperation.

The major task for the upcoming Li-Medvedev meeting is to carry out consensus reached during the Xi-Putin meeting, including further developing bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, discussing detailed measures to realize goals in trade, expanding energy cooperation, deepening cultural exchanges, and facilitating personnel exchanges, Denisov said.

During Xi's visit in March, the two countries agreed to boost their annual trade volume to $100 billion by 2015 and 200 billion dollars by 2020.

Apart from maintaining close consultation and coordination in major international affairs in the past half year, the two countries also cooperated in flood control and disaster relief with regard to floods that hit Russia's far east region and northeast China.

In addition, the two countries are preparing for the China-Russia Year of Youth Exchanges in 2014 and 2015.

Chen Yurong, scholar on European-Central Asian studies with the China Institute of International Studies, said the China-Russia relations have entered a new phase during which pragmatic cooperation is carried out comprehensively.

"Upholding the principle of mutual trust and mutual benefit, the two sides are boosting pragmatic cooperation in the fields of energy, transport, infrastructure, high and new technologies, and such cooperation has manifested momentum," Chen said.