Chinese President begins state visit to Russia

Hu Jintao's State visit will continue till June 18. "Russian-Chinese talks at summit level are to be held in Moscow on June 17", the Kremlin press service announced. Along with the meeting with the RF President, the Chinese President is also to hold talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the same day. Hu Jintao began his stay in Russia with visiting Yekaterinburg where he is participating in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and is to attend the first meeting of the leaders of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries. The leaders of the two countries are expected to discuss a package of measures aimed at raising the quantitative and qualitative level of trade-and-economic cooperation, specifically at increasing the share of engineering and hi-tech products in the pattern of reciprocal trade, as well as steps to give greater scope to co-production arrangements in the oil, gas, and coal industries, in electric power engineering, and possibilities for the use of the national currencies of Russia and China in mutual settlements. They will also discuss humanitarian cooperation between the two countries; Kazinform has learnt from Itar-Tass. See www.itar-tass.com for full version.