Wen stresses Russia-China ties

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MOSCOW, Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Ties with Russia will remain a priority for China, Premier Wen Jiabao said in Moscow while urging the two deepen their strategic coordination partnership.

Wen spoke at Moscow airport Wednesday evening after arriving from Kyrgyzstan, where he attended the prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The Chinese visitor said as international and regional situations become more complicated, China and Russia should continue to deepen their comprehensive strategic coordination partnership and push their cooperation to a higher level. He said China is willing to double its efforts to implement the consensus reached by the heads of state of the two countries in June.

During his one-day visit, Wen was scheduled to hold talks with Russian leaders.

Also in Moscow Wednesday, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said China-Russia bilateral trade volume was expected to hit a record this year, having already reached $73.6 billion in the first 10 months of 2012, up 13.4 percent from last year.

He said China is Russia's biggest trade partner, while Russia is a major trade partner of China.

Zhong said the two sides have been making solid progress in promoting cooperation in coal, electricity and new energy, and exploring new ways of cooperation in upstream and downstream integration of oil and gas, Xinhua said. He said the two sides also are actively discussing or have launched infrastructure projects including roads, railways, cross-border bridges, power grids and optical cable.