Senators met with Hao Peng, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Liaoning Province and Chair of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress.
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko met with Hao Peng, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Liaoning Province and the Chair of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial People's Congress.
The meeting was attended by Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev, Chair of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin, Russian senators Andrey Denisov, Vladimir Dzhabarov and Bair Zhamsuyev, and Head of the Republic of Mari El Yury Zaitsev.
Valentina Matvienko noted that the meeting was taking place on the eve of the Russian President’s visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). He will take part in the One Belt One Road Third International Forum. “The upcoming summit is bound to be a central event in Russia-China relations in the second half of the year and will give a powerful impetus to the development of our practical cooperation,” she said.
The Speaker emphasised that interregional cooperation occupied a special place in the entire system of Russia-China relations. “Our chamber has focused on this issue. We have achieved a high level of cooperation with our Chinese partners in this area,” she said.
According to Valentina Matvienko, two thirds of the Russian regions have ties with Chinese regions and the number of partnership pairs at the municipal level is over 200. She informed her colleagues that, per an earlier agreement, the officials discussed resumption of direct flights between Liaoning Province and big transport hubs in Siberia and the Far East. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency has already given a Chinese aviation company permission to offer flights between Vladivostok and Dalian. Valentina Matvienko believes the possibility of increasing the frequency of flights should be considered if they carry an optimal load.
Hao Peng said the recent visit of a Federation Council delegation to China and the city of Dalian in Liaoning Province generated a positive response in Chinese society and promoted the expansion of trade and economic cooperation and people-to-people contacts.
Federation Council Deputy Speaker Konstantin Kosachev recalled the productive talks held during the visit of the Federation Council delegation headed by the Federation Council Speaker to the PRC in July of this year.
The Senator said the Russia-China Commission on Cooperation and Development of the Far East and the Baikal Region of the Russian Federation and the North-East Region of the PRC is playing an important role in developing interregional cooperation.
He noted that Russian and Chinese regions have developed considerable interest in restoring old contacts and establishing new ties with each other. They want to increase the number of reciprocal visits, joint events and partnership agreements between the regions of the two countries.
Konstantin Kosachev spoke at length about cooperation projects in Liaoning Province. He mentioned the joint Russia-China nuclear power project, the Russia-China trade and industrial park and shipbuilding.
“Streamlining of bank payment mechanisms will help implement these plans. Right now, their stability hugely depends on the threat of secondary sanctions. In this context, we see the benefits of deepening cooperation between our financial institutions and establishing correspondent relations between them,” he said.
Head of the Republic of Mari El Yury Zaitsev spoke about promising areas of cooperation between this region and Liaoning Province.