Beijing-Moscow agreements to boost
trade By Kester Kenn Klomegah
MOSCOW - Chinese President Hu Jintao
arrived in Moscow on Monday to sign a series of
agreements aimed at boosting economic and
political relations between the two giants.
China's Railways Ministry and Russian
Railways are expected to sign an agreement on
broader cooperation in oil transportation. A
memorandum on scientific and technical cooperation
will be signed, and the China Development Bank and
Russian banks will sign several agreements,
Chinese Foreign Ministry sources indicated.
A new target has been set to increase
annual trade to between
US$60 billion and $80 billion
by 2010, and bring $12 billion in Chinese
investment into Russia. In 2005, bilateral trade
was worth about $29 billion.
China is at
the same time ready "to deepen political mutual
trust and to continue offering mutual support in
issues of key interests to our two countries," Hu
said in an interview with the heads of some
Russian media groups ahead of his three-day visit.
Major tasks facing Russia and China
involve "stepping up our countries' strategic
cooperation in international and regional affairs,
and broadening their contribution to peace and
general development", he said.
Hu is also
keen to develop an existing trilateral agreement
among China, Russia and India. The three countries
agreed last month that selective approaches to
counter-terrorist operations cannot yield reliable
results.
"The trilateral cooperation
[among] China, Russia and India is not directed
against any third countries whatsoever. It will
benefit the development of the three countries
themselves as well as peace and development in the
region and the rest of the world," Hu said.
Hu's visit marks the start of a new round
of meetings. "The schedules of further
Russian-Chinese contacts have been negotiated, and
at least four summit meetings are planned for
2007," the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper reported.
Last year, President Vladmir Putin
launched the "Year of Russia in China" and the
"Year of China in Russia" as a vehicle to promote
Russian-Chinese strategic partnership.
"Judging from history, the two countries
have a lot in common that can be developed without
any hindrance," said Tatyana Deich, researcher on
Russian-Chinese policy at the Russian Academy of
Sciences . "A program of collaboration, especially
in the fight against international terrorism,
religious extremism and national separatism, binds
them together."
The moves are being given
an economic base. Russia plans to increase sales
of oil and gas to China, and design an oil
pipeline from eastern Siberia to the Pacific Ocean
with an offshoot in China.
Oil is
increasingly an important component in Russia's
policy for strategic economic cooperation, Deich
said. "Development of Chinese-Russian energy
collaboration relates to the basic common interest
of both countries."
Russia could be
shifting its focus from building relations with
Western nations.
"Russia now concentrates
more on regional interests, and is turning more
attention to the development of the regions of
Siberia and the Far East," said Andrew Ostrovskiy,
deputy director of the Institute of Far East
Studies.
The shift could be needed for the
development of Russia itself. "Only then can
Russia become an economically strong and
politically influential power. A one-sided
orientation towards Europe and the US, the
so-called Atlantic approach, causes an
[unbalanced] development of the European part of
Russia to the detriment of its Asian part.
"Russia is emerging as a transcontinental
bridge between Europe and Asia," Ostrovskiy said.
That position could also make Russia a
transportation hub, he said.
"This is one
of the key advantages of Russia. Therefore it is
necessary to develop the transport network of the
country - conduits - railroads and highways and
air routes from the west to the east and to create
state projects and to achieve investments in them.
If this is done for the next 10 to 15 years, then
the world passenger flow will go around Russia."
Further development of Russian-Chinese
economic ties will strengthen both the Chinese
economy and the Russian position, he said.
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