Putin highlights the potential for cooperation between Russia and China

Speaking on Friday at the opening ceremony of the 8th Sino-Russian Expo in Harbin, Putin noted that the vast majority of Russia’s constituent entities maintain relations with Chinese partners and that almost all Chinese provinces and entities participating in the expo cooperate.

The President stressed that in no other country does Russia have such a wide network of direct contacts and interregional cooperation agreements in various fields.

“Of course, we see great potential for deepening relations between the Russian Far East and the northeast of the People’s Republic of China,” the president stressed.

Putin took the opportunity to invite Chinese friends to attend the ninth session of the Eastern Economic Forum, which will be held in Vladivostok at the beginning of next September.

He added, “It will be an opportunity to continue the detailed discussion about the possibilities of cooperation with Russia, especially in the regions (…) that provide preferential treatment to foreign investors.”

During his speech, Putin noted that more than 300 Russian towns have been twinned with Chinese cities and municipalities so far.

The eighth edition of the China-Russia exhibition, which aims to expand and diversify trade between the two countries, is scheduled to be held from May 17 to 21 in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, and will include more than two thousand participants. .

The first edition of this exhibition was held in 2014 in China, which is hosting this year for the fifth time. Russia has hosted three editions of the exhibition so far, the last of which was in 2023. From 2020 to 2022, the event was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The exhibition center, which occupies an area of ​​10,000 square metres, includes the fields of transport engineering, energy, digital technologies, mining, metallurgy, chemical, food, forestry, lead industries, agro-industrial complex, medicines and pharmaceuticals, interregional cooperation and handicrafts.

The key element of the current edition will be the Fourth China-Russia Forum on Interregional Cooperation, which will be attended by representatives of 25 regions of Russia. Regional agreements will be signed on the sidelines of the exhibition.

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