CRI听力：Experts Made Comments on Premier Wen Jiabao's Official Visits to Russia and Kazakhstan

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has just finished his official visit to Russia and Kazakhstan and returned to Beijing Friday evening. During his stay in Kazakhstan, Wen Jiabao attended the 7th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO. Experts say that Wen Jiabao's official visits have further promoted bilateral ties between China and SCO countries. Xyee has the report.

Reporter: (WWw.hxen.net)
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao conducted his official visit to Russia from Monday to Wednesday, where he held talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, and also met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at the 13th regular prime ministers' talks. Chen Yurong, an expert with the China Institute of International Studies, said that Premier Wen Jiabao has conducted a pragmatic and friendly visit to Russia.

"Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's official visit to Russia has further strengthened the China-Russia Strategic Partnership of Cooperation. The visit not only promoted mutual political trust between the two countries, but also improved trade and economic cooperation between the two sides."

During recent years, China and Russia have enhanced bilateral cooperation in many fields, like trade, energy, science and technology, and environmental protection.

During Wen Jiabao's meeting with Dmitry Medvedev, the two leaders said that the Sino-Russian relationship has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, with enhanced mutual trust and support and broadened cooperation in key areas. Medvedev said that the Russia-China relationship is now at a historical high, especially in the trade and economic sector. In the past ten years, the trade volume between China and Russia has increased 10 fold. As the trade volume is expected to surpass 50 billion U.S. dollars this year, the two countries are trying to reach the 80 billion U.S. dollars mark in 2010.

Leaders from the two sides also signed a series of documents on energy cooperation, which they said was important in constructing a strategic partnership.

Chen Yurong pointed out that enhancing energy cooperation would be a win-win situation for both countries.

"Russia is a huge energy exporter that is now focusing on the huge East Asian market. Therefore, enhancing energy cooperation with China can help promote Russia's energy strategy in East Asia. Meanwhile, the construction of oil pipelines between the two countries is also good news for China, as China would be guaranteed a stable oil supply from Russia."

After concluding his official visit to Russia, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao went to Kazakhstan where he also attended the 7th prime ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO.

During the meeting, the SCO members vowed to spare no effort in implementing the consensus reached by SCO leaders at their Dushanbe summit in August and to promote the steady, sustained development of multilateral cooperation within the organization.

Chen Yurong said that it is quite important for SCO member states to exchange views and provide mutual support keeping in mind the current global financial crisis.

"The SCO has two major functions. One is for its member countries to make concerted efforts to maintain regional stability and security, and the other is to promote regional economic development. As international financial circumstances have been constantly changing, it is important for SCO members to coordinate with each other and work out effective measure to curb the financial crisis, so as to maintain their economic stability and development."