Regional cooperation key to China-Russia partnership

Cooperation between non-adjoining regions of China and Russia was an important part of their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said.

Yang was speaking at a forum on cooperation between regions along the Yangtze and Volga rivers in the southwest Russian city of Samara Monday. He co-chaired the event with Mikhail Babich, Russia's presidential envoy to the Volga Federal District.

Since the first forum was held in Wuhan, in China's central Hubei province, last May, contact mechanisms between the two distant regions had been established at all levels and in different fields, Yang said.

The two regions both enjoyed strong economic strength, high scientific and technological levels and rich cultures, he said, stressing governments and enterprises of the two regions should put the programs into practice for mutual benefit.

As the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination enters a new stage, the forum is seen as a step to implementing the consensus reached last month by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a conference in Shanghai, according to Yang.

Yang said China would invite 150 young Russians from the Volga Federal District to visit the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River for youth exchanges next year.

Babich emphasized that joint efforts should be made to fulfil pragmatic cooperation in such fields as investment, trade and economy as well as science and technology under the established mechanisms, and boost people-to-people exchanges in education, culture and tourism.