Vladimir Putin received at the Kremlin the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang.
During the meeting, the President of Russia expressed hope that he would have the chance to meet with President of China Xi Jinping during the BRICS and APEC summits in November.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Premier of the State Council, friends, I am delighted to welcome you in the Kremlin.
I am aware that you have an extensive programme. Yesterday, you were in St Petersburg and met with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. I am confident that your visit will give a strong boost to promoting our state-to-state economic ties.
I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our Chinese friends on the upcoming holiday, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which the Chinese people will celebrate on October 1. On October 2, we will together mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our states.
In this regard, I would like to note that our country, then the Soviet Union, was the first country to officially recognise new China. This is a big event in bilateral relations.
I would like to note that a very long distance has been covered in the history of bilateral cooperation over the past decades. Today, we really are strategic partners in the full sense of the word, and are implementing a comprehensive partnership that remains Russia’s unconditional foreign policy priority.
We are aware of how much you, Mr Prime Minister, and President Xi have done to promote Russian-Chinese relations in recent years. We highly appreciate this.
I am confident that you can see our efforts, efforts on the part of Russia aimed at expanding Russian-Chinese ties across all areas. There is probably no need to go over this right now.
The only thing I would like to say is that our interaction is, of course, the most important factor in international affairs and has become an important part of expanding our economies and achieving our states’ goals to improve our peoples’ living standards.
Thank you once again for this visit. I would like to thank you again for the contribution that the Government of the People's Republic of China is making to promote cooperation between our countries.
Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Li Keqiang (retranslated): Thank you, Mr President, for your congratulations on the upcoming 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.
This year we are also celebrating the 70th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, We must congratulate each other on this anniversary. Using this opportunity, I would like to mention that President Xi Jinping sends you his best.
Recently, you met and reached new agreements on promoting bilateral relations. During my current visit, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and I held the 24th regular meeting of the heads of government.
Indeed, we have come a long way – we have been holding regular meetings without fail for 20 years, and the agenda is continuously being filled with new content.
At the press meeting, we found it very difficult to briefly describe all of our areas of cooperation. Our cooperation promotes the development of not only our two countries but also the region and the world, especially considering the growing instability and uncertainty in the world, in the region and in the global economy.
China and Russia are the largest neighbouring countries. It is very important for us to continue strengthening our friendship, cooperation and mutual ties so we can pool our efforts in the future to ensure world order under the aegis of the UN, and maintain the system of free trade based on WTO rules, which is very important for developing global stability and security.
Vladimir Putin: Chairman Xi’s state visit to Russia was by all means the main event in this year’s bilateral relations.
I hope the President and I will have the chance to meet during two major events, BRICS and APEC, which will be held in Latin America in November.
Please convey my best regards and greetings to him.