Cooperation with Russia to be enhanced

Premier Li Keqiang called on Wednesday for better alignment between the Belt and Road Initiative and the development strategies of Russia in order to enable new breakthroughs in bilateral cooperation in the economy, trade, energy and agriculture.

Speaking during a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin via video link, Li urged the two nations to proactively foster new area of openness and cooperation while consolidating the foundation of traditional cooperative areas.

The two sides must accelerate their pace of cooperation in manufacturing, the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the digital economy and small and medium-sized enterprises, he said.

The meeting, which was the 25th regular meeting between the Chinese premier and the Russian prime minister, also included Vice-Premiers Han Zheng, Sun Chunlan and Hu Chunhua and their Russian counterparts.

To harness the foundation of popular support for bilateral relations, Li highlighted the need to strengthen people-to-people exchanges, saying that the two sides must work more closely together in education, tourism and the Winter Olympics.

China and Russia, as each other's largest neighbor, have always respected each other, maintained a good neighborly policy and remained committed to achieving win-win outcomes, he said.

The downturn in the global economy and sluggish world trade and investment has not slowed the pace of bilateral cooperation, with new progress being secured in more areas, he said, adding that the two nations have developed even closer trade ties and cross-border e-commerce has blossomed.

The steady progress in major strategic programs such as energy and fresh outcomes in bilateral cooperation in the Far East and at local level are also testament to the strong complementary nature and huge potential of China-Russia cooperation, the premier said.

Beijing is ready to work with Moscow to summarize the outcomes and experience from bilateral cooperation and give fresh impetus to the sustained and sound growth of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era, he added.

It is in the interests of China, Russia and the whole world to safeguard the international order with the United Nations at its core as well as multilateralism and free trade, he said.

China, as the world's largest developing country and a large market with immense growth potential, is willing to share with Russia its development cooperation, expand two-way opening-up and deepen win-win cooperation, he said.

Mishustin said Russia is ready to stand with China in jointly fighting COVID-19 and bolstering cooperation in the research and development of vaccines and pharmaceuticals.

It is important to adopt effective measures to return bilateral trade and investment to a track of growth and explore new growth areas such as the digital economy, he said.