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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, Mr Vice-Premier of the State Council. I am very happy to see you. I know that this is your first visit to Russia in this capacity.

I do not need to underscore the special nature of Russian-Chinese relations. This year, we are marking the 70^th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.

The strategic nature of our relations is confirmed by the large volume of our collaboration in the most sensitive and important areas for our countries and nations.

Thanks to the efforts of President Xi Jinping, the Government of China and your Russian partners, my colleagues, we are making very good headway in the trade and economic sphere, and we have even exceeded our plans for trade.

We are working actively to strengthen international institutions and security systems, cooperating in the military sphere and actively coordinating our positions on the international scene. I would like to ask you to convey my most sincere and friendly greetings to President Xi Jinping.

We are happy to welcome a large delegation of our Chinese friends in Vladivostok. I am confident that we will engage in useful and constructive work over these days.

PRC State Council Vice Premier Hu Chunhua (retranslated): Mr President,

First of all, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to meet with you. I would like to convey cordial greetings and the best wishes from President Xi Jinping, and I will certainly convey your greetings to him.

China and Russia are good partners and sincere friends. President Xi Jinping himself pays great attention to expanding relations with Russia and to the Eastern Economic Forum.

Last year, he personally attended this forum; this year, I arrived here for the 5^th Forum on his instruction. This highlights friendly relations between our countries, as well as the Chinese side’s substantial support for Russia in holding this forum.

I know that you personally and President Xi Jinping are focused on Russia’s agricultural exports to China and it is good that this year we signed a cooperation agreement during his visit. Yesterday in Ussuriysk, we visited the Rusagro group of companies – particularly, its vegetable oil plant. I personally visited a soy field. We also toured storage facilities. I see great potential in our agricultural cooperation.

I would like to note that we have a big market, while Russia has significant production capacity. Therefore, our cooperation is highly promising.

This morning, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev and I had very productive talks regarding cooperation between Northeast China and the Russian Far East.

We zeroed in on specific cooperation projects and, thanks to your and President Xi’s attention, we are successfully advancing cooperation in this format. Some preliminary results are already there. Mr Trutnev and I liaise closely and maintain ties. We will be carefully fulfilling your and President Xi’s instructions in order to further promote cooperation between Northeast China and the Russian Far East.

As concerns our trade and economic links, they are also evolving successfully. Last year, Russia-China trade exceeded $100 billion.

We know that you and President Xi set a new goal to reach $200 billion by 2024. Russian and Chinese ministries and agencies are working together on measures to achieve this goal.

Specifically, we are working not only on developing conventional trade but also on preparing new points of growth – for example, transnational e-commerce. This requires simplifying customs procedures. We are certain that the goal you and President Xi set for us will be achieved.

Vladimir Putin: I am very pleased that, firstly, our Chinese partners are the largest investors in the region’s economy.

Secondly, it is essential that we do not only talk about our common geopolitical interests (which is certainly very important) but we are taking specific steps and achieving good results. We see future prospects and stride forward with confidence.

I am certain that your delegation’s work here in Vladivostok will be very productive and will lead to good results.

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