Russia-China Projects Open Up New Vistas Of Cooperation

By Andreeva Svetlana

Russia and China have signed some 20 agreements in the key areas of cooperation during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China. Earlier, the two countries normally focused on the field of energy, whereas now decisions have been made on a wide range of issues. This graphically illustrates Vladimir Putin’s statement that he made during his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao. He said that bilateral cooperation has reached an unprecedented level and quality.

Russia and China are continuing to cooperate in the fields of energy and transport machine building, but a new major priority has emerged, the one that has to do with innovations. The two leaders voiced certainty during their talks that both Russia and China agree that the high-tech industry and the making of products that can effectively compete on global markets hold quite a potential. That is why one of the documents signed is an agreement between the Skolkovo foundation and the Beijing techno-park, says the head of the Skolkovo foundation, Victor Vekselberg, and elaborates.

“Part of the project is a wide range of partnership relations that have to do both with an active and open exchange of information about advanced technology solutions, reached by each of the two technological clusters, and an exchange of residents, the setting up of joint research teams, and promoting jointly-made products on the market. Compared to Skolkovo, Beijing’s techno-park is, of course, a major association of China’s advanced high-tech companies, with more than 18,000 companies operating as part of it. Therefore, Skolkovo’s potential for cooperation with Beijing is really great.”

Some of the main areas of the forthcoming cooperation are energy efficiency, the creation of new materials and biomedicine. But Russia and China will also cooperate in their traditionally well developed information technology field.

Now, if Russian-Chinese cooperation in the high-tech industry has just started gathering momentum, Moscow and Beijing have been cooperating in the field of nuclear power production for quite some time. The two countries have signed a protocol on building the third and fourth power generating units at the Tianwan nuclear power plant, as well as a roadmap for cooperation in the field of nuclear power production. The Head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, says that the Chinese partners know about Russian nuclear technologies firsthand, since the first two generating units have been effectively operating at the Tianwan NPP for several years now. Earlier this year, a fast neutron research reactor was commissioned, and the fourth phase of a mining and processing plant started active operation, adds Sergei Kiriyenko, and elaborates.

“Cooperation in the nuclear field is invariably setting targets for the future, Sergei Kiriyenko says. It is always possible to continue building reactors or plunge deep into fresh research. Russia actually boasts some promising ideas about fuel for a research reactor, for thermal reactors, as well as clearly interesting programmes to process spent fuel, and carry out space exploration programmes. All these areas of and opportunities for cooperation have been set down in the roadmap of Russian-Chinese long-term cooperation.”

The third and fourth nuclear power-generating units of the Tianwan NPP will be built according to the same procedures that applied to the construction of the first two units, Sergei Kiriyenko says. These are, above all, certain preferences for duty-free supplies of Russian equipment. The head of the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency also said that the construction of the third and fourth power-generating units of the Tianwan nuclear power plant is due to get under way later this year.