China's top legislator meets Russian Federation Council speaker

BEIJING - China's top legislator Li Zhanshu Wednesday held talks with Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko, in which he stressed the need to "provide legal support for promoting the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination."

Li, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), said with great attention and promotion by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, China-Russia relations have witnessed rapid development and reached their best stage in history.

Mature and stable relations between the two countries are not only the precious treasure of both countries and peoples, but also important support for global peace and stability, he said.

"China stands ready to firmly deepen the bilateral comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination and safeguard each other's interests and common interests against the backdrop of complicated and volatile international situations," Li said.

Pointing out that President Xi and President Putin announced 2018 and 2019 as years of China-Russia local cooperation and exchange, Li said local cooperation plays a unique role in China-Russia relations.

He called on both sides to "promote the implementation of the consensus reached by the two heads of states, promote the integration of the Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union, expand the scope and depth of bilateral cooperation, provide legal support for bilateral trade exchanges, major cooperation projects and new areas of cooperation, and inject strong impetus to the development of bilateral relations."

Li briefed the Russian delegation on how the NPC serves the country's overall development. He said the NPC and its standing committee always perform their duties in accordance with the law and focus on meeting the priority tasks of the CPC and the country, adding that China is ready to exchange experience with Russia on state governance.

Li and Matviyenko also co-chaired the fourth meeting of the cooperation committee between the NPC and the Russian parliament in Beijing.

Both sides agreed to use the exchange mechanism to make plans for cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries, promote cooperation under local, bilateral and multilateral mechanisms, and enhance economic and trade cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges.

Matviyenko said Russia and China have set examples for new type of relations between countries featuring non-alignment, non-confrontation, and not targeting at any third party.

She said the Russian Federation Council stands ready to enhance cooperation with the NPC, strengthen exchanges on legislative experience, deepen cooperation within the framework of multilateral parliamentary organizations, and promote the establishment of a cooperation mechanism for legislative bodies of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries.