Aerial photo taken on Feb. 17, 2020 shows a China-Europe freight train fully loaded with auto parts, mechanical facilities and garments bound for Moscow of Russia and Minsk of Belarus waiting for departure at Xiangtang railway port in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province. (Xinhua/Hu Chenhuan)
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday expressed to Russia China's willingness to share development opportunities, expand two-way opening-up, and enhance mutually beneficial cooperation to strive for more achievements in various aspects of bilateral cooperation.
That came as Li co-chaired the 25th regular meeting with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin via video link.
Li said China and Russia, as the biggest neighboring countries of each other, have been following a policy of good-neighborliness based on mutual respect with an eye on realizing mutual benefits and win-win results. He hailed the two countries' cooperation amid COVID-19, as well as the sustained and high-level development of bilateral ties led by the two countries' leaders.
Despite the withering global economy and sluggish trade and investment, Li said China and Russia made renewed progress in multiple fields. It is indicated by closer bilateral trade, the blooming development of emerging business forms, steady advancement of major projects of strategic importance in energy and other sectors, and new outcomes in the Far East and subnational cooperation.
All these speak volumes about the strong complementarity and massive potential of bilateral cooperation, the premier added.
"China is willing to work with Russia in drawing on the past achievements and experience of cooperation to inject new impetus into the sustained and sound development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era," said Li.
After listening to the relevant work reports delivered by the two sides, Li and Mishustin highly appreciated the effective and pragmatic work done over the past year, hailing the sound momentum in exchanges and cooperation between the two countries at multiple levels in various fields.
Li pointed out it serves the interests of not only the two countries but also the world that the two countries make joint efforts in upholding the international order with the United Nations as the core and championing multilateralism and free trade.
The premier said China is ready to increasingly align the Belt and Road Initiative with Russia's development strategies and strive for breakthroughs in trade, energy, agriculture, and other areas of cooperation. He added that China would also accelerate cooperation in areas such as joint manufacturing, peaceful utilization of nuclear resources, the digital economy, and medium and small-sized enterprises.
He also called for enhanced cooperation in education, youth, tourism, and the Winter Olympics to consolidate the popular foundation of friendship.
Mishustin commended Russia-China relations amid COVID-19 and said Russia is willing to work with China to fight the pandemic and enhance cooperation in the research and development of vaccines and medicines. He added that work will be done to get two-way trade and investment back on the track of growth as soon as possible, cement cooperation in industry, agriculture, transportation, energy and infrastructure, tap the potential in the digital economy and other new growth areas.
Mishustin congratulated China on the successful landing of Chang'e-5 spacecraft on the near side of the moon late Tuesday and said Russia is willing to accelerate space cooperation between the two countries.
He called on the two sides to enhance cooperation in basic and applied sciences, deepen people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between local governments, and strengthen strategic coordination under the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to promote the further development of bilateral ties.
Li and his Russian counterpart also announced the passage of a joint communique and several bilateral cooperation documents.
