Full coverage: Premier Li Visits Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Russia

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Premier Li Keqiang and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev co-chaired the 21st China-Russia Prime Ministers’ Regular Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on Nov 7.

Premier Li Keqiang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev co-chair the 21st China-Russia Prime Ministers’ Regular Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on Nov 7. [Photo: english.gov.cn]

Premier Li said that China and Russia are each other’s largest neighboring country and partners in comprehensive strategic collaboration. The bilateral relations have witnessed a steady and healthy momentum, and new results have been constantly achieved in pragmatic cooperation, he said.

As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, both China and Russia have maintained cooperation in international affairs and jointly safeguarded the missions and principals of the UN charter to promote regional and global peace and stability, said Premier Li.

He added that China is glad to join efforts with Russia to better dovetail the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) framework to continuously improve the bilateral relations and cooperation levels, and achieve mutual benefit for the peoples of the two countries.

Premier Li pointed out that amid the sluggish recovery of the world economy and the slowing trade growth trend, China and Russia need to further complement with each other to add vigor to their economic revitalization and transformation.

He said that China is ready to work with Russia to deeply explore the cooperation potentials and deepen the infrastructure construction cooperation in civilian nuclear power , aviation manufacturing and railways.

Premier Li Keqiang and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev co-chair the 21st China-Russia Prime Ministers’ Regular Meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia on Nov 7. [Photo: english.gov.cn]

The bilateral cooperation in the next step will focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, especially the innovation fields, to provide new drivers to China-Russia pragmatic cooperation, said Premier Li.

He said the two sides should strengthen financial cooperation, expand the scale of settlement in local currency to support bilateral cooperation, increase the scale of trade to secure the world trade system and rules to promote the sustainable and healthy development of bilateral trade and two-way investment.

Premier Li said that cooperation in agriculture should be further promoted, especially in processing of agricultural products, where the future is bright.

The two sides should also enhance people-to-people exchanges, and strengthen the cooperation in science and technology and education to prepare well for the 2016-2017 China-Russia Media Exchange Year, Premier Li said.

Hailing the friendship between China and Russia, Medvedev noted that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination and the 15th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation.

Both sides have taken this opportunity to maintain high-level operation of their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and support each other under multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations, the G20, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS.

The economic cooperation between the two countries has deepened and our trade structures optimized, Medvedev noted.

He said Russia cherishes its friendly cooperation with China, and is willing to implement consensus reached by both sides and fully promote pragmatic cooperation in all fields.

Besides gas, civil nuclear power and other large-scale projects, Russia is also ready to expand cooperation with China in finance, agriculture, science and technology, aviation, high-speed railway and people-to-people exchanges, Medvedev added.

He also called for strengthened bilateral cooperation in international affairs to jointly cope with global challenges.

Premier Li and his Russian counterpart also listened to work reports from four bilateral cooperation mechanisms on people-to-people exchanges, regular prime ministers’ meeting, investment and energy cooperation. Both sides exchanged opinions on future cooperation plans.

Vice-Premiers Liu Yandong and Wang Yang also attended the meeting.