High-tech deals keep China-Russia ties on track

Chinese expertise will deliver country 770 km high-speed railway line

China and Russia have reinforced their partnership by signing agreements on multibillion-dollar projects and strengthening collaboration in infrastructure, high-technology and innovation.

Premier Li Keqiang spent three days in Moscow until Oct 14 and both countries dismissed concerns that Beijing and Moscow would develop closer ties because of sanctions imposed by the EU and the US over the Ukraine crisis, saying the two powers would develop relations at their own pace.

In one of the most significant projects, Chinese companies will build Russia's first high-speed rail line stretching 770 kilometers and connecting Moscow and Kazan, an important metropolis on the Volga River.

There will soon be talks on design, financing, supplying facilities and construction of the rail line.

Under the Russian plan, the line will form the initial section of a railway stretching to Beijing, with completion due for 2018 in time for the World Cup football finals in Russia. Kazan is one of the host cities.

The project is one of 39 agreements worth $10 billion (7.8 billion euros) signed after Li and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev met in Moscow for the 19th Regular Prime Ministers' Meetings.

Under other agreements, State Grid Corp of China will help upgrade Russia's electricity network.

Details of the support measures, technical terms and legal protection were also settled regarding a $400 billion deal in which natural gas will be transported from Russia to China.

A currency swap agreement was signed allowing business people to make direct settlement in renminbi and rouble to prevent losses from fluctuations in the value of the US dollar.

"Enhancing cooperation between China and Russia, each other's biggest neighbors and important partners to each other and both major emerging markets, is conducive to peace and development of the world," Li said.

Li said President Xi Jinping and President Vladimir Putin had met many times this year and Li and Medvedev attended the 19th Regular Meetings, underlining the strategic significance, stability and long-term nature of China-Russia relations.

"China is willing to join with Russia to fully tap the huge potential of bilateral collaboration," Li said.

With Russia, China is ready to enhance economic collaboration and make the goal of raising the value of bilateral trade to $100 billion next year a reality, he said.

Both sides should strengthen collaboration on major investment projects in agriculture, chemicals, infrastructure, mining and other fields, and push forward the construction of a Eurasian high-speed transport corridor linking Beijing and Moscow, Li said.

China and Russia should jointly take part in activities marking next year's 70th anniversary of victory in World War II to lay a more solid social and public foundation for growing their relationship, he said.

Medvedev said the two countries are close friends and partners.

"Russia is willing to join China to bring into greater play the great advantages and potential of the economic development of both countries," he said.

Both sides should conduct large-scale investment in each other's country, enhance joint research and development and production, and advance collaboration in transport infrastructure, aviation and other fields, he said.

Before he left Moscow on Oct 14, Li met Putin at the Kremlin. He said China and Russia have always respected each other, treated each other as equals and supported each other on issues regarding core interests and major concerns.

Li said he hopes both sides work together to expand two-way trade and investment and push bilateral cooperation in energy, finance, high-speed rail and other areas.

Putin said he is happy to witness the constant and rapid development of Russia-China relations.

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, says the Sino-Russia relationship is unmatched, but can be even better.

"It is a healthy relationship and it is a relationship that has great potential for improvement."

China is a growing country and will be the world's No 1 economy soon, he says, but many Russians know little about China, and few speak Chinese. Many people travel to China but few study in China or do business there.

"We need to work to change this, which is why I say it is a fine relationship but one that requires a lot of work."

Even when Russia has been at loggerheads with the West it has had its head turned in that direction, he says, neglecting China and Asia, and not using its full geopolitical and economic potential.

"So even if there were no sanctions (by the EU against Russia over Ukraine) I would still strongly recommend - and strongly recommended it earlier this year - that Russia spread its interest in Asia, and China is of course the center of Asia."

Margarete Klein, senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a think tank in Berlin, says the partnership between Russia and China is a success in many ways.

"Both sides have managed to mitigate bilateral security threats to collaborate on a broad range of issues and to enhance trade."

Russia will work hard to achieve breakthroughs in big collaborative projects because it wants to show that it is not isolated, and the EU-sanctions demonstrate that Russia needs modernization partners beyond Europe, she says.

But Gauri Khandekar, a researcher in Brussels for the Spanish think tank FRIDE, the Foundation for International Relations and Foreign Dialogue, says: "China-Russia relations illustrate the saying 'An enemy's enemy is a friend.' Geopolitics has played a big role in drawing Russia and China together. The US factor is key."

Growing closeness between the US and Japan has pushed China closer to Russia, and Western antagonism of Russia has pushed Russia closer to China, which it sees as a competitor to the US, Khandekar says.

China will likely export high volumes of high-tech products, a field in which it has made significant advances, he says.

"It wouldn't be surprising to see Russia import high-tech from China."

Contact the writers at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn and zhaoyinan@chinadaily.com.cn

Liu Jia in Brusselscontributed to this story.

Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (second left) and Premier Li Keqiang (center) visit the Open Innovations forum and exhibition in Moscow on Oct 14. Rao Aimin / Xinhua