Russo-Chinese cooperation to be discussed

Plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President for the Siberian Federal District Leonid Drachevsky on Tuesday starts his working visit to the People's Republic of China.

The Russian-Chinese committee of friendship, peace and development, the Committee of the 21st Century, the co-chairman of which from the Russian side is Leonid Drachevsky, will have its fifth plenary session in Beijing on September 10.

At this session the plan of the committee's work for 2003-2004 will be presented, as well as the agreement on the guiding principles of the activity of the committee will be signed.

As the information centre Sibir reports, the composition of the Russian part of the committee has been fully formed today. It consists of plenipotentiary representative of the Russian President in the Far Eastern Federal District Konstantin Pulikovsky, Russian Minister of Nationalities Policy Vladimir Zorin, extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Russia to the PRC Igor Rogachev and other officials, as well as workers of culture and the heads of big companies working in the eastern regions of Russia.

In the context of the visit of the Russian delegation to China, the sub-committees will hold their sessions in the Diaoyutai residence. The participants in these sessions will consider prospects of cooperation in the spheres of science, education, culture, sports, business and the youth policy. Apart from that, it is planned to hold a round-table conference on the questions of cooperation between Russia and China in the sphere of ferrous metallurgy and the timber complex.

As was underscored by Leonid Drachevsky, the tasks facing the committee include not only assistance to the integration processes in the economic and humanitarian spheres, but also the analysis of the development of relations between Russia and China and the finding out of existing problems. "At the sessions of our committee these problems can be discussed more openly," said Leonid Drachevsky.