ST. PETERSBURG, May 23 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s active cooperation with China will spur Europe’s interest in building a mutually beneficial partnership with Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexei Meshkov told journalists on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Friday.
“Russia is a great country, which has a multi-vector foreign policy, multi-vector economic ties. On the contrary, our active cooperation with China only stimulates our European partners to a mutually beneficial partnership,” Meshkov said.
The Russian official underlined that Europe also has strong ties with China.
“Russia is the third largest economic partner of the European Union with sales volume of over $400 billion, but EU’s second economic partner is China, that is why I do not see any controversies,” he said.
“It is clear that Russia’s interest in the Asia-Pacific region has been increasingly growing for the last 15 years, we have a lot of interests in the region,” Meshkov said.
Russian energy giant Gazprom and China’s CNPC sealed a historic deal for gas deliveries Wednesday. The 30-year contract provides for the sale of Russian gas to China at a volume of 38 billion cubic meters per year with delivery via an eastern pipeline. The value of the entire contract is estimated at $400 billion, though the contract price for gas has not yet been revealed. Under the deal, Russia’s overall investment is $55 billion and China’s is estimated at around $22 billion.
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier said major deals with China do not mean Moscow is suspending ties with Europe, despite the current political standoff over the Ukrainian crisis.
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