China, Russia work on building energy cooperation partnership

MOSCOW - China will exert consistent and unswerving efforts to establish a strategic partnership of energy cooperation with Russia as agreed by the heads of state of the two countries, Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli said here Saturday.

Zhang made the remarks as he co-chaired the 11th meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in Moscow.

During the meeting, the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on cooperation in the fields of natural gas, oil, coal, electricity, nuclear energy and renewable energy.

Zhang said the successful meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Shanghai in May this year helped make breakthroughs on the eastern route of the China-Russia natural gas pipelines and other large-scale joint projects of strategic significance.

He said the breakthroughs has propelled the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination into a new era of development.

Zhang said the meeting of the China-Russia Energy Cooperation Committee is aimed to further implement the important consensus reached by the presidents of the two countries and carry out all-round, in-depth discussions on strengthening bilateral energy cooperation. He said the committee meeting will also make preparations for the October meeting between the heads of government of the two countries.

China and Russia have achieved rich fruits of energy cooperation in the fields of oil, natural gas, nuclear energy, coal and electricity, Zhang noted.

He said the fruitful energy cooperation has helped lift the whole level of practical cooperation between the two countries.

In 2013, China imported 24.35 million tons of crude oil, 27.28 million tons of coal and 3.5 billion kwh of power from Russia, according to official statistics.