China News Service, Moscow, March 9 (Reporter Wang Xiujun) On March 9, Chinese Ambassador to Russia Zhang Hanhui accepted an interview with Interfax.
In the interview, Zhang Hanhui mentioned that since the outbreak of the epidemic, China and Russia have carried out extensive anti-epidemic cooperation, and dozens of cooperation projects have been launched.
This year, the trade between the two countries is expected to achieve recovery growth as soon as possible.
China and Russia carry out extensive anti-epidemic cooperation
Zhang Hanhui mentioned that since the outbreak of the epidemic, China and Russia have supported each other at the bilateral and multilateral levels and have carried out extensive anti-epidemic cooperation in epidemic prevention and control, diagnosis and treatment plans, testing reagents, vaccines and drug development and production.
With the participation and support of the governments and related institutions of the two countries, dozens of cooperation projects have been launched.
For example, under the framework of the China-Russia Year of Science and Technology Innovation, the two sides agreed to jointly build a joint laboratory for the new coronavirus, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Russian Fundamental Research Foundation set up a special cooperation project on the new coronavirus.
Zhang Hanhui said that in terms of the development of new crown vaccines, China Cansino Biotech and Petrovax, a Russian partner, carried out Phase III clinical trials of Ad5-nCoV vaccine in Russia and obtained very satisfactory trial data. They have applied for registration in Russia and are currently waiting for Russia. Approval by the competent authority.
China has also paid great attention to the "Satellite V", "EpiVacCoron" and "Kovivac" vaccines developed by Russia.
"Satellite V" vaccine manufacturers are discussing cooperation issues with relevant Chinese companies.
Zhang Hanhui said that in terms of antiviral drug research and development cooperation, China provided Russia with the clinical trial data of the new crown drug favipiravir at the request of Russia, which facilitated the rapid development of drug clinical trials and registration in Russia; at the same time, Russian health The Ministry has approved the registration of the Chinese drug Azivudine in Russia and the application for Phase III clinical trials.
Sino-Russian trade is expected to achieve recovery growth as soon as possible in 2021
Zhang Hanhui said that the new crown pneumonia epidemic has had a serious impact on the global economy and trade.
The epidemic once affected both ends of supply and demand, logistics and transportation and personnel exchanges, and brought certain difficulties to the growth of Sino-Russian trade.
Despite many unfavorable factors, the fundamentals of economic and trade cooperation between the two countries have remained stable. Bilateral trade has gradually recovered since the second half of last year. In 2020, the trade volume reached 107.77 billion U.S. dollars, surpassing 100 billion U.S. dollars for three consecutive years, a slight decrease of 2.9% year-on-year.
This achievement is not easy, and it reflects the resilience of the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
During the epidemic, the companies of the two countries vigorously promoted the resumption of work and production. The cooperation on major projects is generally progressing smoothly. The mid-section of the Sino-Russian East Route Natural Gas Pipeline started gas supply, the construction of the Amur natural gas chemical project started, and China’s non-financial direct investment in Russia increased by 3.4% throughout the year. One hundred million U.S. dollars.
The two sides have also made positive progress in cooperation in 5G, cloud services, and smart travel.
Zhang Hanhui said that China and Russia will further strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation and promote the development of bilateral economic and trade relations under the background of normalization of epidemic prevention and control.
The competent authorities of the two countries are negotiating and signing the "Roadmap for the High-Quality Development of Sino-Russian Trade in Goods and Services by 2024" to fully enhance trade efficiency, expand two-way investment and strategic cooperation on large projects, and the two sides will also intensively carry out "cloud docking" activities , To support the deepening of exchanges and cooperation between the localities, industries and enterprises of the two countries in an all-round way.
With the joint efforts of both parties, Sino-Russian trade is expected to achieve recovery growth as soon as possible in 2021 and continue to move towards the US$200 billion trade goal.
Zhang Hanhui mentioned that China-Russia agricultural cooperation has great potential and the bilateral agricultural trade volume has been rising in recent years.
The two countries will actively expand mutual market access for agricultural products and food products, and increase the supply of Russian agricultural products to China.
Last year, two Russian companies obtained permission to export beef to China.
Russia is rich in coal resources, and the Chinese market has a large demand for coal.
The joint communiqué of the 25th regular meeting between the prime ministers of China and Russia clearly stated that "supporting enterprises of both sides to carry out coal trade cooperation in accordance with the principles of marketization", it is believed that with the joint efforts of both sides, the coal trade between the two countries will release more development potential.
China and Russia are discussing cooperation to build an international lunar research station
Zhang Hanhui said that in the past 30 years, under the mechanism of the Space Cooperation Subcommittee of the China-Russia Prime Minister’s Regular Meeting Committee, the two sides have continuously deepened and expanded cooperation in areas such as earth observation, moon and deep space exploration, aerospace electronic components, and space debris monitoring. Fruitful cooperation results have been achieved in many fields.
At present, the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation is entering a new era. We will carry forward the traditional friendship between the two peoples, tap new cooperation potential, and pragmatically advance cooperation, so as to make the aerospace field a model of bilateral high-tech cooperation.
In the field of lunar and deep space exploration, in September 2019, China and Russia signed the "Russian Federation National Space Corporation and the National Space Administration of the People's Republic of China on the coordinated implementation of the "Chang'e 7" lunar polar region exploration mission and the "Moon-Resources" -1" Orbiter Mission Cooperation Agreement" and the "Cooperation Agreement between the National Space Administration of the Russian Federation and the National Space Administration of the People’s Republic of China on the Establishment of a Joint Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Data Center". The relevant implementation work is currently being carried out efficiently. This is for the two countries Deepening the cooperation between the moon and deep space exploration has laid a solid foundation.
In this context, China and Russia are discussing cooperation to build an international lunar research station.
In addition, Zhang Hanhui mentioned that China-Russia military technology cooperation, as an important support for the relations between the two countries, has maintained a high level of development.
The military-technical cooperation between China and Russia not only conforms to the core interests of China and Russia, but is conducive to regional peace, stability and development. It is also an important guarantee for maintaining international strategic balance and world peace.
The military technology cooperation between China and Russia embodies the strategic mutual trust and strategic cooperation spirit between the two countries.
With the deepening of the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Russia in the new era, Sino-Russian military technology cooperation will surely give new connotations to the relationship between the two countries in the new era.
(Finish)