At least 20 deals to be signed to boost ties
Russian President Vladimir Putin will embark on a visit to China next week to attend China's events to commemorate the end of World War II, and is expected to sign a flurry of agreements to boost strategic cooperation "in all spheres." [Special coverage]
Cheng Guoping, China's vice-foreign minister, said Beijing will hold a banquet for Putin, and the reception will fully manifest the personal friendship between the two leaders.
Putin will visit China on September 2 and 3 to attend events commemorating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Russian Ambassador to China Andrey Denisov said at a press conference on Thursday in Beijing.
His upcoming visit marks the third meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin this year, following Russia's V-Day parade in May as well as the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization summits in July, Cheng said.
More than 20 documents are expected to be signed during Putin's visit, covering aspects such as energy, finance and investment, as well as transport and logistics, Denisov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency TASS on Thursday.
He noted that the visit "will give an additional impetus to our strategic cooperation in all spheres."
In 2014, Russia's Gazprom agreed to provide $400 billion of natural gas to China over 30 years.
The two countries have also been conducting annual joint naval drills in recent years.
"Negotiations will continue until the last day and hour on some of them, including those that deal with cooperation in natural gas," he said.
Trade between the two countries has increased by some 23 percent year-on-year, reaching around $100 billion in 2014.
"The focus of Sino-Russian trade has been shifting from goods to massive investment projects … Now we have 60 projects involving large-scale investment, including the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail [partly constructed by China Railway Group Limited]," Denisov pointed out.
Shared vision
"China will not be a backstabber since the two countries have been confronted with similarly challenging reforms from the interior, similar contemporary histories and exclusion by Western countries," Feng Shaolei, director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University in Shanghai, told the Global Times.
As Xi and Putin, close in age, share each other's ambitions and governing strategies, it is easier for them to establish a personal friendship and trust which will be long-standing, he noted.
"Their profound mutual understanding will in turn promote diplomatic relations between the two countries," Wang Haiyun, former military attaché at the Chinese embassy in Moscow, told the Global Times.
Xi and Putin have often met in the past two years. Xi conducted his first official overseas trip as China's president to Moscow in early 2013. The two leaders also met in Beijing during last year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Conference in November.
The frequent exchanges between the two leaders will encourage their peoples to understand each other's cultures and facilitate business negotiations among companies, Feng noted.
Nearly half of Chinese respondents look forward to closer diplomatic ties with Russia, followed by ties with the US, according to a survey jointly conducted by the Global Times and Seoul-based MK Business News in early August.
Putin and former U.S. President George W. Bush had a personal friendship since June 2001, when they held their first summit in Slovenia, the AP reported.
The two leaders in 2001 drove around Bush's Texas ranch in a pickup truck while discussing a missile defense system the U.S. was planning to implement.
"Putin showed his unstinting support for the U.S. counter terror efforts after the 9/11 terror attacks, but the US did not repay Putin's kindness, unilaterally withdrawing in 2002 from the 1972 Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems signed between the US and the former Soviet Union," Feng said.
"Unlike the personal friendship between Putin and Bush, which was more of diplomatic parlance, Xi and Putin's friendship is closer, more sincere and long-standing," Wang said.
