CRI听力:Xi, Putin Agree to More Actions on Asia-Europe Connectivity

President Xi Jinping is in the southwestern Russian city for the summits of the BRICS nations and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

He says he's happy to visit a new destination in Russia.

"Mr. President, my old friend. I am very happy to meet with you once again, as well as to see my other old friends. I indeed came to Ufa in a very good mood, because many colleagues asked me, where exactly is Ufa? This is my first ever trip to Ufa."

This is the second meeting in two months between Presidents Xi and Putin, who jointly attended celebrations in Moscow back in May marking the 70th anniversary of the European victory in WWII.

It was at that meeting the two leaders agreed to connect China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with Russia's aspiration under the Eurasian Economic Union framework.

The two sides are prioritizing cooperation in such areas as investment, finance, energy, aviation, space, high-speed railways and the development of Russia's Far East region.

At Wednesday's meeting, Xi Jinping said tangible results have already been achieved in some new cooperation fields.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry official says the two leaders reached a comprehensive consensus on this matter, including areas for cooperation and specific projects to align China and Russia's proposals of connectivity in Asia and Europe.

They have also agreed that all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be the "first platform" to implement projects under the broad connectivity plan.

For his part, Putin expressed confidence in the Russia-China cooperation in addressing global challenges.

"We realize the difficulties we have to face economically and in international politics. But by uniting efforts we, without any doubt, will overcome all the problems we have, we will solve them."

He said the decision to align China's Silk Road proposals and Russia's initiative on a Eurasian Economic Union will surely instill strong momentum into bilateral economic cooperation.

On the overall China-Russia relationship, the two leaders have hailed their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, featuring closer exchanges in all sectors and positive cooperation in international affairs.

This year's BRICS summit is expected to see the launch of a multi-billion-dollar development bank to finance infrastructure projects among BRICS members.

At the SCO summit, a decision on starting the procedures for India and Pakistan to join the organization is going to be adopted.

For CRI, I'm Qi Zhi.