Russian PM arrives in Beijing along with large govt delegation

BEIJING. Dec 19 (Interfax) - Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China on his second visit to this country in 2023.

Mishustin, accompanied on the trip by a big governmental delegation, and Premier of China's State Council Li Qiang will hold annual intergovernmental consultations on Tuesday, which are traditionally attended by a large number of the two countries' deputy prime ministers and ministers.

Mishustin will be received by Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday.

The upcoming contacts will focus on ways to further expand trade and economic cooperation and advance major joint projects in different areas, the Russian government's press service said earlier.

Following the intergovernmental meeting in Beijing, the parties plan to adopt a joint communique and sign a number of Russian-Chinese documents.

It will be Mishustin's third meeting with the Chinese premier in 2023. They first met in the spring of this year after the Chinese president asked the Russian prime minister during a visit to Moscow in March 2023 to intensify contacts at the level of heads of government.

The Chinese leader invited Mishustin to visit China in the near future to restart the mechanism of regular meetings between the two countries' prime ministers.

Mishustin paid that visit to China in late May.

Mishustin and Li then met on the sidelines of a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of the Heads of Government in Bishkek on October 25, 2023. They clarified the parameters of Russian-Chinese cooperation over the period until 2030 in line with the summit agreements.

The previous, 27th regular meeting of the Russian and Chinese prime ministers took place in December 2022 by videoconference. Major intergovernmental consultations were last held in person in St. Petersburg in September 2019. Dmitry Medvedev represented Russia and Li Keqiang China at the talks.