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| RIA Novosti / Aleksey Druzhinin |
Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin said that cooperation between Russia and China has
reached an unprecedented level and become a major factor in international
politics.
Speaking at
an interview with the Chinese state television CCTV, Putin hailed the
strengthening ties between Russia and China.
“We have
brought the relations between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic
of China to a very high level – to the level that has not been reached before,“
Putin said. “And first of all we have reached a very high level of trust in the
political sphere.”
The Russian
prime minister added that this makes the Russia-China bilateral relations a
very important factor in the international political arena.
“We have
learned to move in consolidation while protecting our rightful interests,”
Putin said.
The Russian
PM went on to describe the success in economic cooperation between the two
nations, mentioning the research and production spheres, as well as the
humanitarian field.
Putin said
that while the cooperation amounted to $55.9 billion in the best of pre-crisis
years and in 2011 it will reach $70 billion or even $80 billion. He also
expressed hope that the two countries would reach the $100 billion level by
2015 and the $200 billion level by 2020.
When asked
if his journey had any special meaning for him, Putin said that the
Russian-Chinese relationship was multisided, with energy cooperation just one
side of many in the relations between the two countries.
“Our
cooperation is multisided and it is getting even further diversified,” he
pointed out. “I believe that hi-tech cooperation – not only in traditional
fields and machine building, but also in aviation and aircraft building –
should, of course, be our priority.”
Russia and
China definitely have common national interests in this area, he added.
“In order
to gain a rightful place on the global markets, we should join efforts in,
let’s say, the creation of wide-body aircraft. We should unite our
technological and financial abilities,” Putin said.
The Russian
premier went on to mention other fields for cooperation, such as
nanotechnology, IT, and medicine.
As to
energy, there are various offers from both sides, and not just the planned gas
supplies to China, Putin said. This includes joint development and production
of hydrocarbons in, for example, Russia’s Udmurt Republic. It could also
include possible future work on the “Sakhalin-3” project in the Far East and
“Magadan-1” located on the shelf under the Sea of Okhotsk.\
Putin also
touched upon the long-discussed issue of natural gas supplies to China via
eastern and western routes, which “our Chinese friends see as a priority of the
first stage,” he noted.
The subject
of cost was naturally raised. “Pricing is certainly an essential issue here,”
Putin observed, recalling that earlier in the day, during his meeting with his
Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao, he said that “Those who sell want to sell at a
higher price, and those who buy want to buy cheaper”.
Yet he was
quick to point out that trade is job of managers of business entities, rather
than an issue to be decided on the political level.“And I think that they will
find a fair solution to this question, which would be mutually beneficial for
both China and Russia,” Putin concluded.
When a
reporter asked the Russian PM on how he saw the Russia-China cooperation in the
building of the new world order or the reform of the existing international
economic system, Putin said that the creation of the new world order and the
reform of the existing one were very different things. He stressed that joining
forces to promote the reform of the existing structures was of primary
importance and first of all the global financial structures such as the
International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Putin said that that all BRICS
countries should play a major role in these reforms as the economies of the
BRICS countries are gaining more importance.
Putin
stressed that the international society must pay more attention to the real
sector and limit the speculations and in this regard China and Russia and other
BRICS nations san play a positive role in the stabilization of the global
economy.
Speaking of
the current debt crisis in Europe, Putin said that it was possible to overcome
it, but this needed political courage from the leaders of the European
countries. But in the final analysis, overcoming this grave challenge would
benefit all of Europe, he noted.
Turning to
the situation with the US economy, Putin said that his views on the subject
were not unique, but were shared by European experts, government ministers and
heads of financial structures. He said that the US authorities were right to
buy government bonds and thus simply print money, but any financial policy must
have its limits.
The Russian
PM noted that the US financial authorities were doing the exact thing they
advised against when it came to Russia and other countries.
Putin
denied ever calling the United States “a parasite of the World economy,” but
insisted that the US was benefiting from the monopoly created by the dollar
being the international reserve currency. The Russian Prime Minister said that
such situation was both good and bad for the United States, as well as for
other nations alike. He went on to suggest searching for multilateral solutions
for the existing problems.
“There is
nothing to cheer here, we simply need to get together – with our European and
American colleagues and the BRICS countries and think within the G20 framework
how to get out of this situation together. We need to look for common
coordinated solutions,” Putin said.
“In the
condition of globalization, we are all in one boat to a certain extent and you
need to be careful not to start taking water on, to prevent the boat from
capsizing,” he said.
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Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao (R) and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
attend a joint
press conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,
capital of China,
Oct. 11, 2011. (Xinhua/Rao Aimin)
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