Putin arrives in China for two-day visit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian President Vladimir Putin will arrive on Tuesday, June 4 in China for a two-day visit to discuss a variety issues with the focus on bilateral economic cooperation, according to RIA Novosti.

The sides are expected to sign a joint communiqué and 17 agreements between the governments and companies from both countries, including in the energy sector, industry and innovation technologies.

“We are setting a mid-term goal to increase bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2015 and to $200 bln by 2020,” Putin said in an article for Chinese official People’s Daily newspaper on the eve of his visit to China.

Russian-Chinese trade reached a record $83.5 billion in 2011, a 40 percent increase year-on –year.

“The current trend shows that the stated goal could be reached even earlier than we expect,” he said.

Putin believes that in order to accomplish this task the sides should optimize the structure of bilateral trade, primarily through the increase of the share of value-added products in Russia’s exports to China.

The Russian president expressed hope that Moscow and Beijing would continue close cooperation in the energy sector, including the construction of nuclear power reactors in China. “Russia has helped China to build the first stage of the Tianwan nuclear power plant (NPP), which is considered the safest in China, according to stress-tests,” Putin wrote.