Li, Putin eye closer economic, trade cooperation

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang met with Russian Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin?in Moscow?on Friday to exchange views on ways to boost bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang meets with Russian Prime Minister and President-elect Vladimir Putin. [Xinhua]

Li first congratulated Putin on his presidential re-election on behalf of the Chinese government and the Chinese people.

He said the two countries have forged a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination based on equality, mutual trust, mutual support, common prosperity and lasting friendship and bilateral relations have seen unprecedented development in recent years.

The vice premier called on both sides to spare no efforts to lift bilateral ties to a new height.

Economic and trade cooperation is an important cornerstone for Sino-Russian comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and also an impetus to bilateral relations, Li said, urging both sides to increase pragmatic cooperation in all spheres to boost mutual development so as to benefit both peoples.

Li also put forward proposals on promoting economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

He said China and Russia should improve the scale and quality of their economic and trade cooperation, expand mutual investment, optimize their trade structure and increase the technical content and added-value of their products.

Li called for advanced cooperation on strategic projects to boost both countries' economic competitiveness at the global level.

The two countries should conduct high-tech and innovative cooperation to meet the demands of innovative development and economic transition, Li said, adding that scientific research institutions, high-tech enterprises and universities from both sides need to cooperate directly to carry out a series of large-scale cooperation projects.

He urged closer bilateral cooperation at local levels, and quicker steps to boost cross-border infrastructure development.

The Chinese leader also hoped the two sides would deepen all-round and multi-level energy cooperation in the fields of nuclear energy, natural gas, oil, and coal so as to better serve the economic development of the two countries.

For his part, Putin said that thanks to the joint efforts of both countries, Russia-China relations have reached an unprecedented high level and bilateral cooperation has been expanded to cover more areas.

Li's visit will further enhance the development of bilateral pragmatic cooperation in all spheres, the president-elect said.

Putin also expressed Russia's willingness to work jointly with China to achieve the goal of increasing bilateral annual trade volume to 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

He also said the two countries need to expand bilateral investment, reinforce cooperation in the fields of energy, science and technology, and innovation.

Li arrived here Thursday for an official visit at the invitation of the Russian government.

Russia is the first leg of Li's current European trip, which will also take him to Hungary, Belgium and the European Union headquarters in Brussels.