China's Belt and Road Initiative is perfectly compatible: Putin at press conference in Moscow
Vladimir Putin said that China's Belt and Road Initiative is entirely compatible and China and Russia will remain strategic partners for a long term.
In Short
- Putin said that China's Belt and Road Initiative is perfectly compatible.
- He said that China and Russia will remain strategic partners.
- The 2017 press conference is Putin's 13th since he first became president in 2000.
Russian President Vladimir Putin during his annual end-of-year news conference in Moscow repeated that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is perfectly compatible.
Putin said that it can be included with the development of the Eurasian Economic Union and Russia's proposals on a broad partnership in Asia.
Underlining the bilateral ties of China and Russia, Putin mentioned that the two countries will remain strategic partners in the coming years for a very long time, irrespective of the result of the Russian presidential election, according to a Xinhua news agency report.
The upper house of the Russian parliament voted on Friday to set March 18 as the date of 2018's presidential election. The forthcoming election is due on March 18, 2018 and Putin is widely expected to win his fourth term.
The Russian presidential election has taken an interesting turn with its newest presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak who is the daughter of Anatoly Aleksandrovich Sobchak who was Putin's political mentor.
RUSSIA-CHINA PARTNERSHIP
Putin stated, "I am fully convinced that the development of relations with China enjoys a national consensus in Russia, and irrespectively of the outcome of the Russian presidential election campaign, Russia and China will remain strategic partners for an extensive historic perspective."
China is Russia's major trade and economic partner and its strategic partner "in the broadest sense of this word," he said.
PUTIN"S ANNUAL END-OF-YEAR NEWS CONFERENCES
The 2017 press conference is Putin's 13th since he first became president in 2000.
He traditionally responds to a broad range of questions and queries on topics ranging from the economy and international relations to lighter topics about his personal tastes and preferences.
According to the reports, in December 2016, Putin answered as many as 50 questions in an event that lasted three hours and 53 minutes.
President Putin's longest appearance was four hours and 39 minutes in 2008.
BRI, CHINA AND BRITAIN
The BRI is a connectivity project which was launched by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.
President Xi Jinping's BRI aims to recreate the old Silk Road with massive infrastructure projects to connect China to Europe and beyond.
China's Belt and Road Initiative aims at constructing bridges across Eurasia. It is a billion dollar project and several international organisations along with around 60 countries have signed up for it.
Even Britain wants a closer cooperation with China over its landmark Belt and Road infrastructure scheme, finance minister Philip Hammond said on Friday at the start of a Beijing trip on which he hopes to seal a billion pounds ($1.34 billion) in deals.
China is one of the countries with which Britain hopes to sign a free trade pact once it leaves the European Union (EU). London and Beijing have been determined to show that Britain's withdrawal from the bloc will not affect the ties.
(With inputs from ANI and Reuters)