CRI听力:China, Russia Set to Further Advance Cooperation

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to attend the 7th BRICS summit scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday and 15th meeting of the Council of Shanghai Cooperation Organization Heads of State for Thursday and Friday in Ufa, Russia.

President Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will discuss coordinating the two countries' plans to increase regional trade and infrastructure, bilateral cooperation within multilateral frameworks including the BRICS and SCO, and coordination and cooperation on global and regional issues.

Xie Ping, a Russian journalist working in China, says this will definitely enhance Sino-Russian relations in many important areas.

"There are gonna be a lot of documents to be signed staring from investment, economic cooperation to political field, everything. In the current Sino-Russian relations, what matters a lot is joining the two projects of the Economic Belt and Silk Road and the Rurasian Economic Union. As the leaders of our two countries have said, SCO would be the basis of integrating these two huge projects."

Broadening the membership of the SCO is also one important topic to be discussed during the upcoming summit.

Leaders of the SCO will make a political decision on India and Pakistan's accession to the organization.

Xie Ping says India and Pakistan's admission to the SCO would play an important role in the SCO's development.

"The big thing would be broadening the membership of the organization. As we know, it is expected that on this upcoming SCO summit, India and Pakistan would join in the organization. And when we talk about India and Pakistan, we are talking about 1.5 billion people, two huge economies, two serious economies, two major players in the region."

As for BRICS, Xie Ping says BRICS is working to find a basket of currencies to stabilize the world economy.

"The most important thing about BRICS right now is creating the alternative to the dollar-based global economy. We are trying to find the basket of currencies to serve the world economy. BRICS is going to sign some agreements on currency exchanges. What BRICS is trying to do right now is to try to stabilize the global economy and try to be less independent on one currency."

Xie Ping adds that investment cooperation is playing an increasingly important role in Sino-Russian ties.

"Nowadays the economic cooperation between China and Russia is changing really quick. China is investing a lot in Russia. The latest and most famous project is building the high-speed railway back in Russia, which will make inter people exchanges faster and more convenient. When we talk about investment cooperation, what matters a lot actually is the mutual trust. To enhance that mutual trust, we are holding a lot of cultural projects."

It's the third time that President Xi will attend the BRICS summit.

During his stay there, President Xi Jinping will have a bilateral meeting with President Putin.

It's the second meeting between the two heads of state this year and the fifth over the past two years.