Putin: Russia, China to increase economic cooperation

BEIJING, Jun 27 (PRIME) -- Russia and China have agreed to increase efforts of economic cooperation, President Vladimir Putin said on June 25 during his visit to Beijing.

“Priority attention was focused on issues of improving cooperation in the economic sphere during the talks,” he said.

Moscow and Beijing discussed cooperation in different spheres and signed a large amount of agreements, but the locomotive of cooperation is still the energy sphere.

“Russia is increasing the amount of supplies through the Russia–China oil pipeline and is implementing a project for construction of the Tianjin refinery. Construction of the Sila Sibiri (Power of Siberia) natural gas pipeline, which should reach its full capacity in 2020, is going in strict accordance with the schedule, and we are coordinating conditions of Russian gas supplies to China via the Western route,” Putin said.

The two countries have also agreed to cooperate in development of the nuclear power sector in third countries, he said.

Moscow and Beijing will push forward mutual settlements in national currencies in order to decrease dependence on external circumstances. “The share of the Russian ruble in these settlements is 3%, while the share of the Chinese yuan is significantly larger at 9%. The latter figure should grow tangibly after the launch of a settlement clearing center for yuan operations in Russia,” he said.

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