RUSSIA, March 21 - The meeting was held as part of President of China Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia.
Excerpts from the transcript:
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Andrei Belousov at the meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Tatyana Golikova at the meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Denis Manturov at the meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Mikhail Mishustin at the meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
21 March 2023
Mikhail Mishustin’s meeting with President of China Xi Jinping
Mikhail Mishustin: Welcome, Mr Xi Jinping. I am glad to meet you. Welcome to the Government House of the Russian Federation.
First of all, I would like to congratulate you on being re-elected President of the People’s Republic of China and sincerely thank you for the considerable personal attention you devote to the development of friendship and partnership between Russia and China.
It is important that your first foreign visit after being re-elected is to Russia. This proves the special nature of Russian-Chinese relations, which are entering a new era.
Your talks with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin will take place in the Kremlin today. It is planned to make a number of important decisions on the development of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the medium term, up to 2030.
The Russian and Chinese governments must ensure coordinated work on the implementation of all agreements that will be reached at the highest level.
I would like to use this occasion, Mr Xi Jinping, to pass on my warm-hearted and sincere congratulations to the new Premier of the State Council of China, Mr Li Qiang. I am confident that we will establish constructive and comradely joint work with him.
Russia is sincerely interested in further strengthening its comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation with China.
Our relations have reached the highest level ever in their entire centuries-old history and impact the formation of the global agenda in the logic of multipolarity.
Most members of the Russian Government are present at our meeting: my deputies, heads of ministries and agencies. All of them interact directly with their Chinese colleagues and promote joint projects in the areas they supervise in real time.
Our common work is coordinated by the mechanism of regular meetings between the Russian and Chinese heads of government. This is a unique format with five intergovernmental commissions and more than 80 subcommittees and working groups.
It is important that, despite the unfavourable external situation, turbulence in global markets and increasing sanctions from the collective West, trade and economic cooperation between Russia and China is developing successfully.
Last year, mutual trade increased almost by a third and approached $190 billion.
I believe that this year we will fulfil the task set by you and Russian President Vladimir Putin: to bring our mutual trade to $200 billion.
We prioritise investment cooperation. The portfolio of the Intergovernmental Investment Commission includes 79 projects worth over $165 billion in total.
Our energy partnership, which covers all areas of industry, is of a strategic nature. These are natural gas, oil, oil products, coal, electricity and peaceful nuclear energy.
Joint major energy projects such as Yamal LNG, Arctic LNG 2, the Amur Gas Chemical Plant and the Ust-Luga gas processing complex are being successfully implemented.
I would like to highlight cooperation in high-tech areas, such as aircraft manufacturing, mechanical engineering, machine tool building, space research, as well as end-to-end technologies designed to create innovative products and services.
I am absolutely convinced that the expansion of innovative cooperation will strengthen the technological sovereignty of Russia and China.
In agriculture, we focus on ensuring our countries’ food security. We support the project of a new land grain corridor, which will ensure the supply of grain, legumes and oilseeds from the Siberian and Far Eastern regions of Russia to the Chinese market.
The importance of transport and logistics corridors, which are based on the development of cross-border infrastructure, is growing in the new geopolitical conditions. Last year, traffic opened on automobile and railway crossings across the Amur River. New projects are in the works that would significantly increase shipping along the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Asian routes.
And, of course, we value the strong cultural and humanitarian ties that unite Russia and China. They are based on the historical traditions of friendship and mutual respect between our peoples, and are future oriented in the interests of the young generations of Russians and Chinese people, as stated in an article by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, in the People’s Daily newspaper, published ahead of your state visit to Russia.
Mr Xi Jinping, I am ready to discuss the most important issues of cooperation between Russia and China with you.
Xi
Jinping (retranslated): Prime
Minister Mishustin, I am very happy to meet you.
Owing to the pandemic of the past
few years, you and I were unable to visit each other’s countries for several
years. I am extremely pleased to visit friendly Russia again three years later.
Yesterday, we had an informal
meeting with President Putin. During the meeting, he noted that, ten years ago
when I was elected President of China for the first time, I had also chosen
Russia as the country for my first foreign visit. The memory of this remains in
my heart.
I said that we had chosen Russia
as the country for the Chinese leader’s first foreign visit. This follows
historical logic because we are major neighbouring powers for each
other, and we are also all-round strategic partners.
Our relations have repeatedly
passed stress tests for many years. Consequently, I had no doubts about
choosing Russia as the destination for my first foreign visit, following my
re-election.
Yesterday, I also officially
invited President Putin to visit China at any convenient time. This year, China
will host the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.
President Putin took part in the first two forums. The Belt and Road Initiative
is an important aspect of cooperation between China and Russia. This is why I invited
President Putin to take part in the 3rd Belt and Road Forum for
International Cooperation.
During this visit, President
Putin and I will thoroughly sum up the achievements in our bilateral relations,
and we will also chart a plan for future cooperation. In reality, we have
already obtained many practical results, while implementing this plan, and we
are expecting even greater success.
China has recently hosted the
successful 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China, and the
work of the two sessions has also been completed. The new leadership of the
party and governing bodies has been elected. This highlights the unprecedented
cohesion of the state, the party and the people.
You have just mentioned the new State
Council Premier, Li Qiang; Mr Li Keqiang was his predecessor. The State Council
Premier, Mr Li Qiang, will continue to prioritise comprehensive strategic
partnership between China and Russia, and he will also focus on establishing
close working contacts with you.
We must continue our tradition,
specifically, the mechanism of regular meetings between heads of government.
Moreover, we must step up the work of other mechanisms throughout 2023.
Consequently, we have a lot of work to do. Thanks to these mechanisms, we will
jointly accomplish more goals during cooperation between our countries, and we
will achieve new results. Mr Prime Minister, in this connection, I am also
inviting you to visit China at any convenient time.
We have just spoken briefly. I
would like to note that it is necessary to resume the work of the mechanism of
regular meetings between our prime ministers. I am inviting you to visit China
as soon as possible, so that you would establish close ties with the new State
Council Premier, Li Qiang.
Today, I am very happy to meet
with your colleagues, leaders and members of the Government of Russia. I am
ready to exchange opinions with you later on.
Thank you.
