Putin begins state visit to China

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing on Tuesday morning, kicking off a state visit to China.

He will also attend the 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to be held in Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday.

Putin will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in the afternoon. They will then attend a signing ceremony and meet reporters.

Top leaders of the two countries are expected to discuss the expansion of bilateral cooperation in various fields, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Officials from both Russia and China are going to sign a joint communique on relations and entrepreneurs will sign a number of agreements, Lavrov added.

Bilateral trade volume is targeted to reach $100 billion by 2015 from $83.5 billion last year.

Kremlin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said last week the two countries planned to sign 17 diplomatic and business agreements that should help support booming trade, AFP reported.

The Russian delegation includes six cabinet members, the heads of Russia's energy giants Gazprom, Rosneft and Transneft and "all the major names of Russian business", Ushakov was quoted by AFP as saying.

While energy is high on the agenda, a long-awaited gas deal that could see Russia supply 70 billion cubic meters of gas a year directly to its neighbor will not be signed because of pricing disagreements, Gazprom said on Monday, according to AFP.

Among reported deals to be inked during the visit is a joint project to develop a new long-haul aircraft by Russia's Ilyushin and China's Comac, said AFP.

Putin visited Beijing last October as prime minister.

In an article published in February, Putin set China as a priority of his foreign policy and pledged to "catch the ‘Chinese wind" to propel the domestic economy.