Foreign and Military Affairs

China, Russia pledge closer energy co-op

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-06-01 06:46

MOSCOW -?Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin agreed?in Moscow?Tuesday that their countries will further boost energy cooperation.

Speaking at the seventh round of the Sino-Russian energy negotiators' meeting, Wang said that Sino-Russian energy cooperation is all-around, long-term and strategic and is an important component of the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of coordination.

As both China and Russia are maintaining good momentums of economic growth, the two countries are embracing a historical opportunity for the development of bilateral energy cooperation, the Chinese representative said.

China is willing to work with Russia to make full use of the energy negotiation mechanism and further promote bilateral cooperation in such areas as oil, gas, coal, nuclear energy and renewable energy, he added.

Since the Sino-Russian crude oil pipeline was put into operation on January 1 this year, it has been running smoothly and has delivered more than 6 million tons of oil, Wang noted.

Sechin, for his part, said that just like every previous round of the Russia-China energy negotiators' meeting, the latest round was held in a good atmosphere of mutual trust and was very fruitful.

Stressing that the Russia-China energy cooperation is of strategic significance, he said that he had reached consensus with Wang on a wide range of issues of mutual concern.

The latest meeting also shows that the Russia-China strategic partnership of coordination has reached a very high level, he added, while expressing the hope that bilateral energy cooperation will bear more fruit in the future.

Earlier on Tuesday, Wang visited the headquarters of Russian energy giant Gazprom.