PRESS RELEASE

Russian-Chinese Collaboration Focuses
On High-Tech, Rail Corridors

Oct. 13, 2011 (EIRNS))—Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to China Oct. 11-13, on the occasion of the 16th Regular Russian-Chinese Prime-Ministerial Meeting, resulted in the conclusion of at least eight bilateral cooperation agreements, especially in the areas of nuclear power, space exploration, and other high-technology areas. Both Putin and his counterpart Wen Jiabao also stressed the role to be played by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in moving forward with Eurasian economic development.

Putin said: "We intend to support close cooperation in production, creating promising technological alliances, and implementing infrastructure products, while increasing mutual capital flows. Our goal is to diversify our trade and economic ties. We have created a whole set of tools for achieving these goals, including the Investment Cooperation Plan, as well as the Program for Cooperation between the Regions of the Far East, Eastern Siberia, and Northeast China." (The latter program, when first unveiled in 2009 by Presidents Dmitri Medvedev and Hu Jintao, already listed over 200 joint projects.)

He then specified the areas where "scientific groundwork" for collaboration has been done, specifically "space exploration, telecommunications, machine-building, the aviation industry, the agro-industrial complex, and, of course, military-technical cooperation."

While Putin and Wen were meeting, Russian and Chinese officials and scholars were concluding a two-day conference, held on Sakhalin Island, on expanded infrastructure cooperation in northeastern Eurasia. At the final press conference, Russian Academician Mikhail Titarenko, head of the Far East Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and a longtime advocate of the Eurasian Land-Bridge conception, spoke.

Titarenko, who waged a long and intense fight against the prejudice of some in Russia that the Chinese land-bridge routes would be developed to the detriment of Russia's Trans-Siberian, said that he was glad to welcome "Chinese interest in creating a transcontinental transport corridor from Southeast Asia to Europe through Russia," according to Interfax. The news agency quoted Academician Titarenko:

"China recognizes this corridor through Russia, and is even offering certain efforts to develop this project. But, in order for this corridor to work, the Trans-Sib must be able to provide rapid container shipments, which it currently cannot; it needs to be modernized."