By Bernama,
Moscow : Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will visit Beijing on August 8-9, to “hold full-scale talks with Chinese leaders”, a sources in the Russian government told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.
Putin’s visit is timed with the opening of the Olympic Games.
“Despite unprecedented engagement of Chinese authorities in the organisation of the Olympiad, the Chinese leaders have allocated special time for meeting with the Russian prime minister.
“This is an important gesture for the part of the Chinese leaders testifying and stressing special relations of Russia and China,” the source said.
Just the Chinese side was an initiator of the bilateral meetings that will be held in Beijing over these days.
He said “China’s leadership will probably even arrange a lunch in the morning of August 8” in honor of Putin.
He will hold separate talks with Chinese State Council Premier Wen Jiabao on this day.
The Russian prime minister is expected to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao, on Saturday, as well as China’s former leader Jiang Zemin.
The source said the sides would discuss the “widest range of matters of bilateral cooperation in the sphere of energy, the industry, civilian aviation and ecology”, as well as results of the meeting of the two countries’ leaders in this year’s May and ways to implement achieved accords.
At the same time, the “sides will not have enough time for making long-term decision, but there will be time for discussing the most important matters of interaction”, the source said.
He said results of Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin’s visit to China in late July, and preparation of intergovernmental agreements and meetings of prime ministers of state member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Astana would be reviewed.
“The level of our trade and economic contacts is good. Trade between Russia and China over the first five months of this year has grown by 50 percent, and made US$40 billion in 2007,” the source said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi that Putin and the Chinese leaders would “discuss matters of practical cooperation in key areas, first of all in the trade-economic one”.
He stressed that the Chinese track is a priority in Russia’s foreign policy.
Sechin in turn said after his talks in Beijing with State Council Premier Wen Jiabao that Russia and China are pursuing intensive work to expand a zone of settlements in roubles and yuan.
The launch of the mechanism of the energy dialogue between the two countries, which envisages the development of major joint projects in the energy sphere, gives special importance to instruments of bank services.
The expansion of mutual settlements in roubles and yuan will be important for reducing the dependence of trade operations on external factors, Sechin said.
He also said the sides were going to activate joint energy projects with the participation of Rosneft, Gazprom and Transneft.