– Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) and Chinese President Hu Jintao shake hands at a press conference …
MOSCOW (AFP) – Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday wrapped up a visit to Russia that has seen the powers vow to beat the economic crisis and reverse plummeting trade by bolstering their strong ties.
After the talks Wednesday with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Chinese delegation was to meet Russian business leaders before heading to Slovakia a two-day visit.
The leaders have been keen to play up the importance of energy trade from Russia to energy-hungry China, including a loan-for-oil deal worth 25 billion dollars for Russian oil supplies over the next 20 years through a new pipeline.
"We have started a complex cooperation in the oil sphere and reached an important breakthrough in the energy sphere," Hu said.
This deal alone means China surpassed Germany and the Netherlands as Russia's biggest trading partner in the first quarter of 2009 but volumes have fallen sharply, according to Kremlin figures.
China's economic growth, which now far outpaces Russia, is another trend that will increasingly weigh heavily on the two countries relations, said Sergei Lusyanin, an expert with Moscow's Institute of Far Eastern Studies.
"The weak link in their relations is the imbalance between Russian and Chinese trade. Russia exports raw commodities while China exports machinery and manufactured products," he said.
Medvedev, however, cited bilateral trade with China worth over 55 billion dollars in 2008, making no mention of the gloomier outlook for 2009.
But even as the two giants hailed their growing energy relations, trade in the sector is evolving slowly, after the first talks on oil and gas cooperation were initiated in the 1990s.
Russian energy monopoly Gazprom said Wednesday a planned gas pipeline to China had been delayed until after 2011 after Beijing and Moscow have been unable to agree on a price for the gas contract.
"This experience can be used spheres other than the energy sector," Medvedev said. Hu added: "In the midst of the global financial crisis, we are actively developing a practical cooperation in every sphere."
The warming ties is a marked change from the from the Cold War era when the Soviet Union and China clashed for supremacy in the Communist world.
Both countries have taken great strides to put old rivalries behind them, ending just last year a decades-long dispute over their 4,300-kilometre (2,700-mile) border after negotiations started in 2004.
The joint declaration issued by Hu and Medvedev after talks emphasised the two powers' shared view on many issues including a call to increase the voice of emerging economies on the world financial stage.
China and Russia also agreed to boost the use of their domestic currencies in bilateral trade -- a move which could lessen the dominance of the US dollar.
Diplomatic ties between the two permanent members of the UN Security Council have been founded on a common stance on issues from the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes to the Middle East, Sudan and non-proliferation.
And while the two countries compete for influence in Central Asia, they together seek to rebuff US and European involvement in the region.
To this end and with the aim of balancing against US global hegemony, they increased their cooperation in regional clubs.
Hu travelled to Russia's Ural-mountain city of Yekaterinburg at the start of the week for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which groups Russia and China with four Central Asian states and aims to be a counterweight to NATO.
After the talks Wednesday with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Chinese delegation was to meet Russian business leaders before heading to Slovakia a two-day visit.
The leaders have been keen to play up the importance of energy trade from Russia to energy-hungry China, including a loan-for-oil deal worth 25 billion dollars for Russian oil supplies over the next 20 years through a new pipeline.
"We have started a complex cooperation in the oil sphere and reached an important breakthrough in the energy sphere," Hu said.
This deal alone means China surpassed Germany and the Netherlands as Russia's biggest trading partner in the first quarter of 2009 but volumes have fallen sharply, according to Kremlin figures.
China's economic growth, which now far outpaces Russia, is another trend that will increasingly weigh heavily on the two countries relations, said Sergei Lusyanin, an expert with Moscow's Institute of Far Eastern Studies.
"The weak link in their relations is the imbalance between Russian and Chinese trade. Russia exports raw commodities while China exports machinery and manufactured products," he said.
Medvedev, however, cited bilateral trade with China worth over 55 billion dollars in 2008, making no mention of the gloomier outlook for 2009.
But even as the two giants hailed their growing energy relations, trade in the sector is evolving slowly, after the first talks on oil and gas cooperation were initiated in the 1990s.
Russian energy monopoly Gazprom said Wednesday a planned gas pipeline to China had been delayed until after 2011 after Beijing and Moscow have been unable to agree on a price for the gas contract.
"This experience can be used spheres other than the energy sector," Medvedev said. Hu added: "In the midst of the global financial crisis, we are actively developing a practical cooperation in every sphere."
The warming ties is a marked change from the from the Cold War era when the Soviet Union and China clashed for supremacy in the Communist world.
Both countries have taken great strides to put old rivalries behind them, ending just last year a decades-long dispute over their 4,300-kilometre (2,700-mile) border after negotiations started in 2004.
The joint declaration issued by Hu and Medvedev after talks emphasised the two powers' shared view on many issues including a call to increase the voice of emerging economies on the world financial stage.
China and Russia also agreed to boost the use of their domestic currencies in bilateral trade -- a move which could lessen the dominance of the US dollar.
Diplomatic ties between the two permanent members of the UN Security Council have been founded on a common stance on issues from the Iranian and North Korean nuclear programmes to the Middle East, Sudan and non-proliferation.
And while the two countries compete for influence in Central Asia, they together seek to rebuff US and European involvement in the region.
To this end and with the aim of balancing against US global hegemony, they increased their cooperation in regional clubs.
Hu travelled to Russia's Ural-mountain city of Yekaterinburg at the start of the week for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which groups Russia and China with four Central Asian states and aims to be a counterweight to NATO.
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