Russia-China to sign 30 agreements next week

May 16, 2014, 2:01 pm

Beijing and Moscow will consolidate growing ties by signing a raft of agreements from economy, trade and energy to humanitarian aid, said a Kremlin aid on Friday.

A record 30 agreements are expected to be inked during Russian President Vladimir Putin visit to China May 20-21, Yuri Ushakov said Friday.

Ushakov said the package lists 43 various documents, and 30 of them, both intergovernmental and corporate are expected to be signed.

“The package which is currently in our hands probably sets a record… Possibly around 30 [documents] may be signed,” Ushakov said.

Some of them are expected to be signed right after Putin’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while others will be inked at the two leaders’ meeting with Russian and Chinese entrepreneurs.

Putin’s official visit to China coincides with a session of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The Russian president is expected to meet with Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Iraqi Prime Minister Iraqi Prime Minister and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

CICA has 24 full-fledged member states, while nine countries and four international organizations have an observer status. The organization’s summits are held every four years.

Meanwhile, Russia’s trade with China may reach the $100 billion mark by the end of the year, Kremlin authorities said on Friday.

“The outlook for this year is very favorable, judging from the growth rates for trade in the first quarter of 2014, we can go as far as $100 billion in bilateral turnover by the end of the year,” Ushakov said.

Bilateral trade reached $88.8 billion last year.

According to data released in early May by China’s General Administration of Customs, Chinese-Russian trade turnover for the first quarter period increased by 3.4 per cent year-on-year to $29.05 billion.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said in March that the Russian energy giant plans to sign a 30-year contract for delivering gas to China, with annual delivery expected to be 38 billion cubic meters.

The tentative agreement between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation has been delayed several times in the past over pricing disagreements between the two countries.

The current standoff between Russia and the EU over tensions in Ukraine has, according to analysts, given an impetus to Moscow’s long-awaited deal on exporting up to 60 billion cubic meters of gas per year via the eastern route to China, the largest market for Russian gas in the Asia-Pacific region.

Source: Agencies