President: Boost energy partnership with Russia

China is willing to work with Russia to build a high-level energy partnership and enhance the resilience of energy industry and supply chains, in order to contribute to the long-term, healthy, stable and sustainable development of the global energy market, President Xi Jinping said on Thursday.

In a congratulatory letter to the fifth China-Russia Energy Business Forum, Xi called on the two countries to make greater contributions to build a global partnership for clean energy cooperation.

With joint efforts over the years, China and Russia have built up all-around, wide-ranging, in-depth and high-level energy cooperation, Xi said.

This has served as a good example of China-Russia pragmatic cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit, and has played a positive role in ensuring energy security and sustainable development for the two countries and the world, he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has just wrapped up his visit to China, also sent a congratulatory letter to the forum.

Addressing the opening ceremony of the forum, Vice-Premier Ding Xuexiang read out Xi's letter. Ding put forward a three-point proposal to enhance China-Russia energy cooperation, saying that both sides should enhance the connectivity of energy infrastructure, maintain effective communication and jointly ensure the safe and stable operation of cross-border energy channels.

Both nations should explore new growth engines in energy cooperation and strengthen cooperation in emerging sectors such as renewable energy, hydrogen energy, energy storage and carbon markets, said Ding.

China-Russia energy cooperation has been the bedrock of bilateral trade, the target of which has been set at $200 billion for 2024.

During the forum, companies from the two countries reached over 10 cooperation agreements in fields such as oil and gas, coal and talent development.

Ren Jingdong, deputy head of the National Energy Administration, said that China-Russia energy cooperation will continue to strengthen with increasing vitality and potential.

In the first eight months of this year, energy trade between China and Russia reached $56.19 billion, up 6.2 percent year-on-year, according to the administration.

Zhao Yongfeng, general manager of the China Coal Technology and Engineering Group, said there is a strong foundation and promising prospects for cooperation between China and Russia in the coal sector.

"Going forward, more efforts are expected to strengthen cooperation in areas such as industry design standards, safety standards and construction norms. Efforts should also be made to engage in comprehensive cooperation in the development of intelligent coal mining and new technologies and equipment," Zhao said.

Zhang Hualin, assistant president of the China National Petroleum Corp, said, "There should be also joint efforts to explore clean utilization of fossil fuels and carbon reduction in oil and gas projects."