China, Russia vow to further boost pragmatic cooperation

China and Russia have reached consensus on further boosting bilateral pragmatic cooperation, according to a senior Chinese official.

Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan said the consensus was reached during the 16th meeting of the Joint Commission for the Regular Meetings of Heads of Government of China and Russia he co-chaired with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Wednesday.

The two countries agreed to continue to optimize trade structure, expand trade in high-tech and high value-added products, and improve the investment environment to increase mutual investment, Wang said.

They also agreed to actively conduct cooperation in high-tech fields, such as large aircraft, heavy helicopters, space, communications and high-speed railways, he said.

They would speed up infrastructure construction of cross-border bridges to improve the interconnection between the two neighbors and actively advance financial cooperation, he said.

The two countries would promote cooperation on local levels, especially between Russia's Far East and China's northeast areas, and continue to enhance communication and coordination within multi-national frameworks, he said.

Wang said the China-Russia relationship was at its historic best. During Russian President Vladimir Putin's successful visit to China this year, the two countries further specified the principles, directions and priorities in the future development of their bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

Wednesday's meeting was aimed at implementing the consensus reached by the two countries' leaders, and making in-depth exchanges on issues of common concern so as to strengthen cooperation, Wang said.

He said pragmatic cooperation was vital for consolidating and developing China-Russia relations.

China and Russia had worked together to tackle challenges since the outbreak of the international financial crisis, and bilateral trade had been growing rapidly, Wang said.

He said China was now Russia's largest trading partner, with the trade volume between the two countries this year expected to reach a record 90 billion U.S. dollars.

The China-Russia crude oil pipeline had been put into operation, he said, adding energy cooperation had been enhanced and covered a wide range of areas, such as upstream and downstream integration of oil, natural gas, nuclear power, coal and electricity.

The Chinese yuan (RMB) and Russian ruble (RUB) were already tradable and the China-Russia currency settlement mechanism had expanded to include general trade, Wang said. The two countries had also carried out joint research on manufacturing long-range wide-body passenger planes and heavy helicopters.

Moreover, China and Russia had closely coordinated with each other within such multilateral frameworks as Group of 20, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS, he said.

Wang said against the backdrop of a complex global economic situation with the economic downtown to last for some time, further enhancing Chinese-Russian cooperation was crucial to the two countries' development.

Further deepening bilateral pragmatic cooperation faced new opportunities and advantages, as Russia was admitted to the World Trade Organization this year and the new government was committed to developing an innovative economy, while the 18th national congress of the Communist Party of China set goals of building a well-off society and comprehensively deepening reforms and opening-up, he said.

Wang called on the two sides to create a new environment for bilateral cooperation in an honest and pragmatic spirit.

Rogozin said, with the concerted efforts of both sides, bilateral trade, although influenced by the international financial crisis, had maintained sound momentum, with trade structure improved, mutual investment scaled up and joint venture enterprises increased.

The pragmatic cooperation between Russia and China had withstood the tests of the international financial crisis and become an important guarantee for promoting healthy development of the two economies, he said.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Wang and Rogozin also attended the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement between China Development Bank and Russia's Sberbank.

The two sides also signed a series of cooperation documents worth 4.9 billion dollars.