Nations benefit from Yangtze-Volga pact

Cooperation among regions around the upper and middle reaches of China's Yangtze River and the areas along the Volga River in Russia has contributed greatly to the development of both nations, said a senior Russian official on Wednesday.

Igor Komarov, Russia's presidential plenipotentiary envoy to the Volga Federal District, made the remarks in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, as the fourth meeting of the council of cooperation between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Volga Federal District was held.

The meeting was also attended by Vice-Premier Zhang Guoqing.

Of more than 100 cooperation agreements the countries have signed during the past decade, half were signed between the Volga Federal District and the Chinese regions in the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, boosting trade and education cooperation, Komarov said on the sidelines of the meeting.

In 2013, the countries launched a mechanism to strengthen regional cooperation between 14 Russian federal provinces along the Volga River and China's Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, and Sichuan provinces and Chongqing along the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

In 2016, the countries convened the first meeting of the regional cooperation council in Ulyanovsk, Russia. Komarov said he looks forward to strengthened cooperation between his district and Jiangxi in the fields of electronic products, automobiles, agriculture, medical care and wood processing.

Also on Wednesday, the sixth forum of the "Yangtze-Volga" University Alliance was held in Nanchang.

The alliance was established in 2017 as part of the bilateral regional cooperation mechanism. According to Komarov, 35 Chinese universities and 50 Russian universities have joined the alliance.

Nie Shaoping, vice-president of Nanchang University, a member of the alliance that organized Wednesday's forum, said the university hopes to engage in wider and more pragmatic cooperation with Russian universities. The university has partnered with 19 Russian universities.