Russia, China take significant steps towards bilateral trade diversification - Putin
MOSCOW. June 23 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Chinese partners for their readiness to make the structure of Russia-China trade 'more sophisticated'.
"We have been discussing this issue with our Chinese partners for years. I would like to thank our friends for our success in establishing such collaboration in this essential area and achieving the set goals. Those were our common goals. We agreed upon them, and we are now moving in the right direction," Putin told the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an interview ahead of his visit to Beijing. The interview was given on June 17, during the Russian president's visit to St. Petersburg.
"I am not sure about the exact figures, here we should consult the relevant reports, last year has seen a considerable increase, of 44 per cent, I believe, in our export of engineering products to the People's Republic of China. That is highly important for us," he said.
"In this regard, one of the most important directions is of course the diversification of our ties, making them more sophisticated, paying more attention to the high-tech area of our collaboration," the president said.
"The existing problems in the world economy have also had an impact on our collaboration, leading to a certain drop in the total trade turnover, but we are convinced that it is a temporary phenomenon resulting from the current situation with certain goods and the exchange rate. Nevertheless, we manage to settle the key issues. We manage to take major steps to improve our trade structure," the Russian president said.