Trade turnover between Russia and China doubled to $60 billion last year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a meeting with Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie in Singapore on Saturday.
The two ministers met on the sidelines of a regional security forum in Singapore.
Russian-Chinese relations have been gradually developing, Ivanov told Guanglie, adding that the two countries have “good prospects of cooperation in the energy sphere, including nuclear energy, as well as in the military and technical, and hi-tech spheres.”
The Russian minister also expressed hope that an upcoming visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao to Moscow, which is to take place later in the month, will further strengthen the two countries’ ties.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said earlier this week that Russia will finalize a 30-year deal with China by June 10 to supply a total of 68 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
So far the parties have failed to reach a final agreement on gas prices. Sechin said Russia’s energy giant Gazprom plans to wrap up pricing talks on future gas supplies to Beijing during Hu’s visit to Moscow.
Under a draft accord, Russia would supply 30 bcm of gas per year through a western route from Siberia into northwestern China, and a further 38 bcm into northeastern China. Earlier, Gazprom was reported to begin delivering 30 bcm of gas per year to China from 2015.
Russia and China may also reach an agreement by the end of 2011 to build a joint oil refinery, China’s energy chief Liu Tienan has said.
SINGAPORE, June 4 (RIA Novosti)