Russian President Starts Visit to China

Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive on Tuesday in China for a two-day visit to discuss a variety issues with the focus on bilateral economic cooperation.

The sides are expected to sign a joint communiqué and 17 agreements between the governments and companies from both countries, including in the energy sector, industry and innovation technologies.

“We are setting a mid-term goal to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015 and to $200 bln by 2020,” Putin said in an article for Chinese official People’s Daily newspaper on the eve of his visit to China.

Russian-Chinese trade reached a record $83.5 billion in 2011, a 40 percent increase year-on –year.

“The current trend shows that the stated goal could be reached even earlier than we expect,” he said.

Putin believes that in order to accomplish this task the sides should optimize the structure of bilateral trade, primarily through the increase of the share of value-added products in Russia’s exports to China.

The Russian president expressed hope that Moscow and Beijing would continue close cooperation in the energy sector, including the construction of nuclear power reactors in China.

“Russia has helped China to build the first stage of the Tianwan nuclear power plant (NPP), which is considered the safest in China, according to stress-tests,” Putin wrote.

“We are hoping to continue our cooperation in the construction of the second and further stages of the Tianwan NPP and the construction of other energy –generating facilities in China,” he said.

The agenda of the upcoming Russian-Chinese talks also includes the discussion of border issues, including worker migration and shared use of bio-resources, and the coordination of positions on the international arena.

During his stay in Beijing, Putin will take part in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional security grouping that comprises Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

 

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