MOSCOW. March 20 (Interfax) - Beijing and Moscow should increase the volume and quality of their investment and trade and economic cooperation, Chinese President Xi Jinping said.
"It is necessary to simultaneously increase the volume and quality of investment and trade-economic cooperation, strengthen political coordination, provide more favorable conditions for the qualitative development of investment cooperation, and increase the scope of bilateral trade," Xi said in an article published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta ahead of his state visit to Russia.
China and Russia should "expand common interests, explore new growth points, and form a development structure that is mutually complementary and combines conventional trade and new forms of cooperation," he said.
Xi called for continued joint efforts in combining the One Belt, One Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union "to institutionally facilitate bilateral cooperation and regional integration."
Xi said his visit to Russia is aimed at "strengthening friendship, cooperation, and peace" and expressed his willingness to act together with Russian President Vladimir Putin "to outline new plans and measures for opening up new prospects for Chinese-Russian relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction."
Touching on the Ukraine crisis, Xi said, "Proceeding from the very essence of the developments, China has consistently assumed an unbiased and impartial position and is making active efforts to promote reconciliation and peace negotiations."
"A number of views that I have voiced manifest China's fundamental principle in approaching a Ukraine settlement. In particular, it implies the need to follow the UN Charter's goals and principles, respect reasonable security concerns of all states, support all efforts aimed at peacefully settling the Ukraine crisis, and ensure stability of global production and supply chains," he said.
"China's position on a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis published recently, which takes into account the reasonable concerns of all parties, reflects as much as possible the international community's common views on overcoming the Ukraine crisis," he said.
"We are convinced that a prudent solution to the Ukraine crisis and a way toward a lasting peace and common global security will be found if everyone follows the concept of common, comprehensive, joint, and sustainable security and continues a dialogue and consultations in an equal, sensible, and pragmatic manner," Xi said.
At the same time, "before addressing global problems, we need to settle our own issues," he said.
"The Communist Party of China, consolidating and leading the Chinese people, is striving in every way for the great revival of the Chinese nation through Chinese modernization, which is special in that it embraces a huge population and aims to achieve common prosperity, consistent development of material and spiritual culture, harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and follow the path of peaceful development," he said.