Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong (L) meets with Governor of the Irkutsk region Sergey Levchenko in Irkutsk, Russia, July 6, 2016. (Xinhua/Bai Xueqi)
IRKUTSK, Russia, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Liu Yandong on Wednesday called for promoting regional cooperation between China and Russia during a visit to Russia's Irkutsk region.
The China-proposed One Belt and One Road Initiative and Russia's regional development projects in the Far East and Siberia provide new opportunities, especially for regional cooperation between the two countries, Liu said.
Both sides should make the most of the mechanisms at different levels, including the regular meetings between Chinese and Russian regional leaders and bilateral agreements on friendly ties among regions and cities of the two countries, Liu added.
Regional cooperation could be expanded at multiple levels by coordinating regional development plans to bring mutual and practical benefits to both China and Russia, Liu said.
"The Irkutsk region has rich natural resources and lies geographically near to China, which are the advantages of developing cooperation with the Chinese side," she said.
"The Chinese side would continue supporting the practical interaction between the Irkutsk region and Chinese provinces and cities on infrastructure construction, investment as well as humanities cooperation," she added.
Governor of the Irkutsk region Sergey Levchenko on his part praised the positive results of cooperation with China, the biggest investor and largest source of tourists of the region.
Levchenko hoped cooperation would be deepened in areas like trade, investment, tourism, education and culture.
