China and Russia on Thursday issued a joint communique on wide-ranging cooperation and coordination between the two countries.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev meet in Moscow on Thursday. [Photo: Xinhua]

The document was released after the 17th regular meeting of the two countries' heads of government, co-chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.

The two leaders spoke highly of the important role the mechanism of regular meeting between Chinese and Russian prime ministers has played in the development of China-Russia relations.

They reviewed the achievements and experience in bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on further expansion of cooperation in politics, economy and trade, energy, science and technologies, culture, and also in major international and regional affairs.

The two sides stressed that bilateral relations have made major progress.

The two countries witnessed frequent high-level exchanges, firmly supported each other on issues concerning the other's core interests such as sovereignty, security and territorial integrity, and solved their border disputes, which has laid a solid legal foundation for bilateral ties.

China and Russia have witnessed steady and rapid development of pragmatic cooperation in various areas, as the social basis of bilateral ties has been enormously consolidated and the two countries have moved in coordination on major international and regional issues.

China and Russia always make developing relations with each other a priority of their foreign relations and see each other as major cooperation partner.

The two prime ministers pledged commitment to further deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination based on equality and trust, expand pragmatic cooperation in all fields so as to promote sustainable development of the two countries and contribute to the peace and stability of the region and the whole world as well.

Trade and economic cooperation

Amid a fluctuating world economy and international trade, China and Russia have maintained sustained and stable development in bilateral trade and economic ties, the two premiers said.

To keep this positive momentum, they proposed that the two countries will constantly optimize their trade structure, strengthen investment cooperation, intensify communication in border areas and at local level, expand cooperation in high-tech and innovation, and promote contacts between the two countries' businesses.

The two sides agreed to take Russia's accession into the World Trade Organization (WTO) as an opportunity to further develop bilateral economic and trade cooperation and enhance coordination within the framework of the WTO.

They will diversify the variety of traded goods between the two countries and scale up export of advanced mechanical and high-tech products, help the two countries' enterprises to build partnerships and bring the role of institutions supporting export into full play.

They will seek to bring bilateral investment cooperation to a higher level, with a focus on large-scale cooperation projects. They will also improve investment environment and increase related communication.

The two sides also agreed to speed up efforts to draw up a cooperation plan on the utilization of forest resources and prepare a solid ground for China-Russia cooperation in the intensive processing of timber inside Russia.

The two countries will support their enterprises in cooperating in the production and processing of aluminum in accordance with business principles, and promote exchanges between the two countries' pharmacy industries.

They will also strengthen agricultural cooperation and expand technology cooperation in priority sectors such as new energy, energy efficiency, information and telecommunication, nano industry, new materials, sustainable use of natural resources, agricultural technologies, modern manufacturing, bio-technologies, among others.

They will continue to coordinate in the implementation of cooperative projects on civil aircraft manufacturing and enhance bilateral cooperation in astronautics.

The two countries will also work jointly to improve cross-border transportation infrastructure in a bid to boost bilateral trade volume. The two sides will also have discussions on the further development of ties between their aviation industries.