( Last Update: 2011/08/22)

In 2010, the strategic partnership of coordination between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation continued to deepen across the board. The bilateral political mutual trust, practical cooperation, people-to-people exchanges and strategic coordination reached an unprecedented level.

The two countries maintained intensive high-level exchanges. President Hu Jintao met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev six times. President Hu Jintao attended the celebrations in Moscow marking the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Great Patriotic War. The two presidents had bilateral meetings on the margins of the BRICs Leaders Meeting in Brazil, the SCO Tashkent Summit and the G-20 Toronto and Seoul Summits. From 26 to 28 September, President Medvedev visited China. The two presidents released the China-Russia Joint Statement on Comprehensively Deepening the Strategic Partnership of Coordination, made new, overall planning for bilateral relations, and exchanged views in depth and reached extensive agreement on international and regional issues of shared interest. They also issued the Joint Statement on the 65th Anniversary of the End of the Second World War. NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping met with President Medvedev respectively. President Medvedev, accompanied by Vice President Xi Jinping, attended Russia's National Pavilion Day at the Shanghai World Expo. Russian State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov and Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov paid visits to China from 18 to 20 May and from 17 to 19 October respectively. During their visits, NPC Chairman Wu Bangguo co-chaired with State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov the fourth meeting of the cooperation committee between the NPC and the State Duma, and co-chaired with Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov the third meeting of the cooperation committee between the NPC and the Federation Council. President Hu Jintao and Vice President Xi Jinping met with Chairman Gryzlov separately, and President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao met with Chairman Mironov separately. From 22 to 24 November, Premier Wen Jiabao paid an official visit to Russia, held with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the 15th regular China-Russia prime ministers' meeting in St. Petersburg, met with President Medvedev and Mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin in Moscow, and attended and addressed the fifth China-Russia Business Summit. From 20 to 24 March, Vice President Xi Jinping visited Russia as CPC and state leader. He met with President Medvedev, Prime Minister Putin, Chairman Gryzlov and leaders of Russia's major political parties, attended the opening ceremonies of the Year of Chinese Language in Russia and the second meeting of China-Russia governing party dialogue mechanism, and visited St. Petersburg and Vladivostok. From 21 to 24 November, Vice Premier Wang Qishan visited Russia, co-chaired with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov the 14th meeting of the commission of regular China-Russia prime ministers' meeting in St. Petersburg, held with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin the China-Russia energy negotiators' meeting, and accompanied Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to Russia. From 21 to 25 March, State Councillor Liu Yandong visited Russia and oversaw the preparations for the opening ceremony of the Year of Chinese Language in Russia. From 20 to 24 November, State Councillor Liu Yandong visited Russia, co-chaired with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov the 11th meeting of the commission on cultural and people-to-people exchanges, accompanied Premier Wen Jiabao on his visit to Russia, and attended the closing ceremony of the Year of Chinese Language in Russia. From 16 to 19 June, Member of the Political Bureau Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee Wang Yang paid a visit to Russia and attended the 14th St.Petersburg International Economic Forum. From 8 to 12 September, NPC Vice Chairman Jiang Shusheng led a delegation to Russia for the sixth Baikal International Economic Forum, and met with Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov, Deputy Chairman Ivan Melnikov and Irkutsk Governor Dmitry Mezentsev. From 4 to 6 October, State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu attended the International Meeting of the High Representatives on Security Issues in Sochi, and met with Russian Federal Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and other foreign political leaders present at the meeting. From 13 to 18 November, Navy Commander Admiral Wu Shengli visited Russia. From 21 September, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin visited China, and held with Vice Premier Wang Qishan the sixth China-Russia energy negotiators' meeting in Tianjin. On 9 November, Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov visited China and met with Vice President Xi Jinping. On 4 June, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a visit to China, and met with President Hu Jintao and State Councillor Dai Bingguo. Chinese and Russian foreign ministers met several times at international and multilateral forums, had phone conversations and exchanged letters and messages to maintain communication and coordinate positions on major international and regional issues.

China and Russia continued to give each other strong support on issues concerning core interests including national sovereignty, security and development interests. Russia firmly supported China's principled position on matters related with Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, Nobel Committee awarding prize to Liu Xiaobo and other matters, and gave China strong support on holding the Shanghai World Expo and its security protection. China firmly supported Russia's efforts in combating Chechnya terrorist forces and maintaining stability at home and supported Russia's principled position on matters concerning the history of the Second World War. The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement on jointly fighting the "three evil forces".

China-Russia practical cooperation made progress in various fields. Bilateral trade bounced back strongly, almost recovering to the pre-financial crisis level. Trade mix further improved, and trade in electro-mechanical products continued to grow. China's high-tech imports from Russia and electro-mechanical exports to Russia rose quickly, and bilateral cooperation in fine processing of timber further deepened. Trade order further improved, and Chinese businesses built large modern commercial complexes in Russia. Energy cooperation registered major breakthrough, and China-Russia crude oil pipeline was completed in late September and came into official operation on 1 January 2011. Upstream-downstream petroleum cooperation made big progress, and the jointly invested Tianjin oil refinery broke ground. Gas negotiation moved forward steadily. Russia reaffirmed the west pipeline would start providing gas no later than 2015 and the two sides agreed to sign a gas purchase and sales contract before late June 2011. Bilateral nuclear power cooperation deepened. The two sides signed a contract on the 3rd and 4th units of the Tianwan nuclear plant, and cooperation on fast reactor and uranium enrichment made steady headway. Coal and electrical power cooperation gained momentum. The two sides launched a range of cooperation programs, including coal resources development, supporting facility construction and coal-to-oil conversion in Russia and China's participation in Russian power grids modernization, and signed a contract on trade in electrical power for 2011. The two sides conducted cooperation on energy efficiency and renewable energy, further expanding the scope of energy cooperation. Financial cooperation achieved major progress. The RMB-rouble trading was launched in inter-bank foreign exchange market of the two countries, creating conditions for the expansion of bilateral local currency settlement. Local cooperation further expanded and deepened. The implementation of the outline of regional cooperation between Northeast China and Russia's Far East and East Siberian region got off to a good start, and Russia designated the first 12 priority projects.

China-Russia cooperation in military technology registered new progress. The 15th meeting of China-Russia inter-governmental joint commission on military technology cooperation was held in Beijing, where the two sides adopted plans for the direction and priority projects over the next stage of cooperation, and agreed to conduct cooperation in military technology while expanding trade in military products.

Bilateral cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges had new bright spots. The Year of Chinese Language in Russia was a big success, during which the two sides held 87 events, covering education, culture, media, movie, publication and other fields and involving 23 federal regions and attracting broad public participation of the two countries. They increased understanding and friendship between the two peoples and reinforced social and popular support for the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination. The two sides opened culture centres in each other's country, set up a sub-commission on cooperation in youth affairs under the framework of the commission on cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and agreed to launch the year of tourism in China and Russia in 2012 and 2013 respectively. During the summer vacation in 2010, the first group of 500 Russian primary and high school students came to China for the summer camp in Dalian and Qingdao. The two sides placed high importance on the restoration and protection of the site of the sixth CPC National Congress and made active efforts in this regard.

China and Russia carried out effective strategic coordination. The two countries held same or similar positions on global issues such as the UN Security Council reform, global economic governance, climate change, food security and energy security and addressing regional hot-spot issues including the tension on the Korean Peninsula, the Iranian nuclear issue and Afghanistan. They had intensive communication and conducted coordination and cooperation within multilateral frameworks, including the UN, G-20, SCO, APEC and BRICs, effectively upholding the common interests of the two countries and making important contribution to promoting world and regional peace and stability and building a just and reasonable international political and economic order.

(Source: fmprc.gov.cn)

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