Interview: Russia-China comprehensive cooperation has broad prospects: senior Russian official

Russia and China enjoy broad prospects for further development of cooperation through integration of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) framework with China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, a senior Russian official said on Friday.

In a joint statement signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping during the latter's visit to Moscow in early May, the two sides agreed to make concerted efforts to integrate the EAEU construction with the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, so as to deepen the Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and maintain the stable and long-lasting growth of regional economy.

The two sides have decided to launch a working mechanism at the level of deputy foreign ministers to make such integration operational by September, Igor Shuvalov, the first Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Coordination between the two strategies will be a very complex and versatile economic pattern with various formats, such as joint investment in project, creation of new economic space, free trade zone and etc., said Shuvalov, who is attending the ongoing Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum kicked off on Thursday.

The coordination will spur economic growth in EAEU member countries (namely Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) and China,as well as many other countries along the economic belt, he said.

Noting that Russia-China relations have been gaining momentum, Shuvalov pledged to support and encourage bilateral cooperation and voiced his hope that joint investment projects could be much more active to bring the two-way trade to new heights.

"Our relations are developing rapidly. We see interests of Chinese partners in all directions, from economy to military-technical cooperation. We too are showing an interest," he said.

Having no hesitation in showing his confidence in the coordination program, Shuvalov pointed out that the two countries' initiatives are designed to allow both nations to flourish and benefit from successful integration.

As an annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is to be held in Russia's Ufa city in early July, Shuvalov believed that the group could play a bigger role in promoting the coordination program.

Russia and China have proposed discussion on the integration of projects within the SCO framework, and "We have agreed to make it a key SCO agenda", he said.

Speaking highly of the cooperation mechanisms between Russian and China, he said Russia does not have a similar network of intergovernmental cooperation mechanisms with any other country in the world, but with China, which focuses on investment, energy, humanitarian mission as well as the military-technical area.

Commenting on fears in the Western world that Russia and China are building a new "Big Eurasia" and may somehow change the balance between the West and the East, Shuvalov criticized the confrontational mentality of the idea, emphasizing that what the two countries are proposing to build is a partnership which would be open to all.

"It is not against anyone, rather it is oriented toward opening up new horizons. We do not want to exclude anybody...(and) do not want any new disequilibrium or the formation of any new center," he stressed. Endi