29th regular meeting of Russian and Chinese heads of government

The meeting was held as part of Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang's official visit to Russia.

Mikhail Mishustin's remarks at the 29^th regular meeting

Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang's remarks at the 29^th regular meeting

Excerpts from the transcript:

Mikhail Mishustin: Mr Li Qiang, colleagues,

I would like to extend a warm greeting to you and all members of the extensive Chinese delegation visiting Moscow. I am confident that today's 29^th regular meeting between the Russian and Chinese heads of government will take place in a traditionally friendly and productive atmosphere.

As noted by President of Russia Vladimir Putin noted, Russian-Chinese relations are currently at their strongest point in history. These relations are built on a solid foundation of good-neighbourliness, equality, and mutual consideration of each other's interests.

Our comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are crucial in the face of an emerging new world order. In these conditions, the partnership between Russia and China serves as a powerful stabilising force, promoting economic growth and improving the lives of our people.

In May, our leaders, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, adopted a Joint Statement in Beijing, which outlined strategic agreements for further expanding our practical cooperation. The task at hand for our governments, Mr Li Qiang, is to ensure the full implementation of the decisions that were made by our leaders for years to come.

We have a solid foundation for achieving this goal. Last year, Russian-Chinese trade increased by 23 percent, reaching a new record of over 20 trillion roubles, or 1.6 trillion yuan.

Our energy partnership is also strengthening. Russia is the leading exporter of oil to China and will soon become the top supplier of natural gas. We also have a good level of coal supplies. Joint work in the sphere of peaceful atom is progressing and discussions are underway for new large-scale initiatives.

We are actively developing industrial cooperation, with joint projects in sectors such as aircraft and automobile manufacturing, mining and gas chemical industries, and metallurgy. We also have plans to expand exchanges in knowledge-intensive areas such as space, cross-cutting technologies, and artificial intelligence. By combining Russia's rich scientific potential with China's production and technological capabilities, we can achieve great success.

Furthermore, we aim to increase the supply of agricultural products to the Chinese market. Thanks to the Made in Russia exhibition, Chinese consumers were able to get to know our food products and assess their quality.

In order to further enhance economic cooperation, it is crucial to continue building reliable transport and logistics corridors and to jointly use the capabilities of the Northern Sea Route.

We consider the promotion of cultural ties to be of utmost importance. The number of participants in educational exchanges is growing, and we are consistently expanding our inter-university cooperation. Over 90,000 school and university students in Russia are studying the Chinese language. Last year, the number of tourist trips between our countries exceeded one million. We aim to double this figure by the end of December. All of these efforts contribute to improved communication, friendship and mutual understanding between our peoples.

Colleagues,

We are currently facing a challenging external environment. Western countries are imposing illegitimate sanctions under far-fetched pretexts, or, to put it simply, engaging in unfair competition. They are seeking to maintain their global domination and hinder the economic and technological potential of Russia and China. But, as our Chinese friends say, "Whoever follows the path of fairness has many helpers."

Therefore, it is important to concentrate efforts on protecting our common interests and building a multipolar world order and to enhance coordination at international venues.

Today, we have a full agenda. I hope that we will find concrete solutions that will provide an added impetus to the comprehensive and multi-faceted Russian-Chinese cooperation.

Mr Li Qiang, the floor is yours.

Li Qiang (via translator): Thank you, Prime Minister Mishustin, for your excellent opening remarks. I am very pleased to preside over the 29^th regular meeting of the heads of government of China and Russia together with you in Russia.

Since our previous meeting, the bilateral commissions, sub-commissions and working groups have worked efficiently, achieved good progress in cooperation across all areas, and prepared thoroughly for this meeting. I would like to thank them for their work and thank you, Mr Prime Minister, and our Russian colleagues for their painstaking organisational efforts and hospitality.

Over the recent years, the strategic guidance from President Xi Jinping and President Putin has propelled the Chinese-Russian high-level relationship to achieve great advancements.

This year, we will celebrate the 75^th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. Faced with a volatile and difficult international situation and complicated external challenges, our leaders have held two meetings to engage in detailed strategic exchanges of views and have summarised the successful experience of Chinese-Russian relations over the past 75 years. They have also drawn up new plans at the highest level to further promote Chinese-Russian relations from a new historical starting point.

The two countries continue to build up trade and investment, enhance both the quality and scale of their energy cooperation, and actively promote cooperation in the transport sector, science, technology, outer space, aviation. Close humanitarian exchanges have been maintained. We are fully confident that the multi-faceted and mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries will be intensified even further.

Today, we are holding the 29^th regular meeting within the framework of our interaction mechanism. Over the past 30 years, we have held this meeting annually without interruption, which convincingly demonstrates the tremendous stability and vitality of bilateral cooperation.

We hope that today's meeting will provide an opportunity for a detailed exchange of views and discussion of cooperation outcomes. It is also vital to consider each other's important concerns, identify significant targets, and establish a solid foundation for cooperation at the next stage.

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