MOSCOW, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Russia is "very successful" and will strengthen the already sound comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries, a top Russian legislator said.
Calling the state visit a "symbolic" start of a new historic stage, Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, said both sides see their partnership and friendship as "a great treasure."
During his March 22-24 visit to Russia, Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin vowed to enhance their countries' comprehensive strategic cooperation. Russia was the first leg of Xi's maiden foreign trip since he took office earlier this month.
"Leaders of Russia and China have conducted sincere and beneficial talks on bilateral and international affairs, which further enhance the fruits of cooperation," Matviyenko told Xinhua recently.
Speaking of her meeting with Xi, she said they "held in-depth discussion on cooperation between the Russian Federation Council (the upper house of parliament) and the Chinese National People's Congress."
Matviyenko said China has achieved tremendous progress in various fields since introducing the reform and opening-up policy.
"This proves the Communist Party of China has found a development model that suits China's national conditions," the official said.
She also noted that the Russia-China trade volume has been increasing in recent years, with greater potential to be explored.
"Cooperation in the economic sphere should take into account the development realities of each other's country as well as the changing world economy," Matviyenko said. "The more complexity and difficulties the global economy faces, the more contact and cooperation we two sides should maintain."
According to her, the two giant neighbors have numerous chances to boost cooperation in energy and ecological spheres. The two sides should also enlarge the scale of local currency settlement in bilateral trade while broadening regional and cross-border cooperation, she said.
The official said Russia has worked out a scheme for development in the Far East and Baikal region till 2025.
"The Gross Domestic Product in the Far East is expected to double by 2025. To reach that goal, we need investment of hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars. China, with no doubt, is a crucial potential investor," she added.
As strategic cooperative partners, Russia and China will definitely find common interests in the long-term development scheme in the Far East, she noted.
"Russia is willing to build industrial clusters with China, which combine enterprises, research centers, design agencies and engineering centers from both sides," she said.
The two countries should bear their current needs in mind while looking ahead to the future. "The most important thing is that we should further pragmatic cooperation," Matviyenko said.
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