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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: President Xi Jinping, ladies and gentlemen,

We have just ended substantive talks with the President of China, Mr Xi Jinping, who arrived in Moscow today at the head of a representative delegation for an official visit.

Tomorrow, together with other foreign leaders, we will take part in the events celebrating the 70^th anniversary of Victory in World War II. In September, in Beijing, we will celebrate the end of World War II and will honour the memory of those who fought shoulder-to-shoulder against militarist Japan.

Our countries suffered the greatest losses in this war, and this is why we so consistently oppose any attempt to rehabilitate Nazism and militarism or falsify history.

This heroic past that we share gives us a good foundation for building mutually advantageous good-neighbourly bilateral relations in the twenty-first century. China today is our strategic key partner. Our talks took place in the spirit of trust and mutual understanding that characterises our relations. We examined a broad range of bilateral matters and international issues, and we signed two joint declarations and an impressive package of documents, which you saw just before, inter-governmental and commercial agreements.

Expanding and bolstering our economic cooperation was one of the main subjects on the agenda at the talks. China remains Russia’s leading trade partner. Our countries’ bilateral trade reached a figure of $88.4 billion last year according to our data, and $95 billion according to Chinese statistics. The small drop by half a percent that we saw at the start of this year was due primarily to unfavourable foreign economic situation and the fall in oil prices.

We discussed the possibilities for working together in the energy sector, a key area of our relations. We looked at oil and gas projects and projects in electricity, nuclear energy, and energy conservation.

We have solid results in all of these areas. Russia is steadily increasing oil exports to China. In 2014, we delivered 28.5 tonnes, which is an increase of nearly 40 percent on the previous year. Let me stress this figure – 40 percent in just a year.

In accordance with the breakthrough agreement signed in May 2014, we will supply 38 billion cubic metres of natural gas every year over a 30-year period via the eastern route gas pipeline. This pipeline’s construction is already underway in Russia and construction is due to start soon on the Chinese side too.

The next stage will be to deliver natural gas to China via the western route. The main conditions for this project’s implementation were cemented today in the agreement signed between Gazprom and PetroChina.

We welcome Chinese companies’ involvement in gas production in the Russian Arctic and Sakhalin offshore fields. Work is underway to examine and prepare our Chinese partners’ participation in developing the large Vankor oil and gas field in the north of Krasnoyarsk Territory.

Together with the Chinese President, we examined opportunities for Rosatom to take part in building new power units at the Tianwan nuclear power plant and other sites in China and in third countries.

We will continue to develop our financial sector cooperation, including through broader use of the ruble and the yuan in mutual settlements. Over the first two months of this year, we used our national currencies in more than 7 percent of settlements under our bilateral contracts.

We took another big step in this direction today. You saw that Sberbank has reached an agreement with its Chinese partners on providing credit lines in our national currencies and has signed the relevant accord.

We have launched new financial instruments: in March, the Moscow stock exchange began trading ruble-yuan futures.

We also plan to step up our investment cooperation and build up reciprocal capital flows. Let me note in this respect the work of the Russian-Chinese Investment Fund, which has invested 130 billion rubles in our countries’ economies. The plan is to raise this figure to 200 billion rubles over this year.

We agreed to continue our close cooperation in the high-tech sector. Renova Group and the Chinese Cybernaut Fund have agreed to carry out joint investment projects in Russia worth a total of around $1 billion.

China will be a partner country at the big INNOPROM international industrial fair in Yekaterinburg in July this year.

We agreed to deepen our industrial cooperation. We plan to complete work rapidly on initial design of a wide-body long haul aircraft and will prepare a draft intergovernmental agreement on this plane’s joint production. We hope by the end of the year to conclude a general contract for developing a heavy civilian helicopter.

We will actively promote our Sukhoi Superjet-100 plane on the Chinese market. The agreement signed today between the United Aircraft Corporation, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, and their Chinese partners will help us in this task.

We discussed opportunities for developing our space sector cooperation. Further integration of the GLONASS and BeiDou navigation systems is on the agenda.

We are developing our cooperation in the transport sector. China is ready to invest around 300 billion rubles to finance construction of a high-speed railway link between Moscow and Kazan.

We discussed the issue of coordinating cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union and China. We think that the Eurasian integration project and the Silk Road Economic Belt project complement each other very harmoniously.

The Joint Declaration I signed today with President Xi Jinping speaks precisely of these possibilities for integrating these models. Essentially, we seek ultimately to reach a new level of partnership that will create a common economic space across the entire Eurasian continent.

We are actively expanding the range of our bilateral humanitarian ties. As part of the programme of activities through the years of friendly youth exchanges, more than 300 exchanges took place last year, and more than 200 joint events are planned for this year.

We are looking now to organise reciprocal years of Russian and Chinese media in 2016 and 2017. These events all aim to help to bring our peoples even closer together.

We agreed to coordinate more closely our joint efforts to help resolve the most serious global and regional problems. These include the Syrian crisis, the Iranian nuclear programme, achieving non-nuclear status on the Korean Peninsula, and strengthening stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region.

We are grateful to our Chinese friends for their active support of Russia’s presidency in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the BRICS group and their help in preparing these two organistions’ summits, which will take place in Ufa, in Russia, in July.

Of course, we also discussed the situation in Ukraine. Our foreign ministries are in regular contact on this issue.

In conclusion, I want to thank our Chinese colleagues once again for the open and constructive dialogue, and I want to thank our great friend, Chinese President Xi Jinping, for his constant personal attention to developing Russian-Chinese relations.

Thank you for your attention.

President of the People’s Republic of China Xi Jinping (retranslated): President Putin, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon,

On the eve of May 9 and the Victory in the global anti-fascist war, it gives me immense pleasure to come to Moscow at President Putin’s invitation to take part in the celebrations marking the 70^th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and visit Russia to be together with the Russian people and the peoples of the entire world for this sacred occasion. For the Russian people, May 9 was and still is the most glorious holiday, the celebration of Victory.

Russia and China were the main theatres of military operations in Asia and Europe during World War II. Our peoples suffered the greatest losses in the fight against militarist and Nazi aggressors and achieved an immortal historical feat through this victory in the global anti-fascist war.

The Chinese and Russian peoples fought shoulder-to-shoulder in the war against the Nazi and militarist invaders. They supported and helped each other and cemented with their blood and their lives a true brotherhood forged in war.

The years have passed, but the Chinese people will never forget and the world’s peoples will never forget the great sacrifices made by our fathers and grandfathers and their feats in achieving victory in this war.

China and Russia will hold a whole series of events this year to celebrate the 70^th anniversary of Victory in World War II. Our aim in holding these events is to make sure that history is never forgotten, pay tribute to the fallen heroes, preserve and defend together with all the world’s peoples this peace that was won at such great cost, combine our efforts to defend the results of World War II and justice in the world, oppose the falsification and distortion of history, and open together a radiant future for the world and all of humanity.

President Putin and I just held substantive and friendly talks. President Putin has already spoken in detail about our discussions. We had a deep-reaching exchange of views on Chinese-Russian relations and key international and regional issues of mutual interest.

We reached common positions on a broad range of issues. We agreed that both countries would continue to see development of our relations as a priority area in our foreign policy. We will give each other greater support on matters concerning each other’s vital national interests, continue to strengthen the traditional friendship between our peoples, and continue to develop at the highest level our relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.

We agreed on the need to continue expanding our cooperation in various practical areas. We will give particular attention to finding common ground in China’s development of the Silk Road Economic Belt, Russia’s efforts to build Trans-Eurasian transport links, and the Eurasian Economic Union integration project. We will work towards greater mutual openness, coordinate our development strategies and deepen and interweave our interests for the good of both countries and peoples.

We agreed to continue developing our bilateral cooperation in the humanitarian sector and continue the Youth Exchange Year. We have agreed to hold the Years of Chinese and Russian Media in 2016 and 2017.

China and Russia have gathered successful experience over the course of establishing a new type of international relations. This year, as we celebrate the 70^th anniversary of the UN’s creation, China and Russia, as permanent members of the UN Security Council, are supporting firm compliance with the UN’s rules and the basic norms of international law and advocate the formation of a new type of international relations based on the principles of cooperation and common benefits.

In this respect, BRICS, the SCO and other multilateral organisations can be of great use. China is doing all it can to support Russia’s presidency in these two organisations this year. We are ready to make a common effort together with Russia to help these two groups to make a bigger contribution to guaranteeing peace, development and prosperity in the region and the world in general.

In conclusion, I once more thank President Putin and the Russian Government for the excellent organisation and for giving our delegation such a hospitable welcome.

Thank you for your attention.