During a meeting in Beijing with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping welcomed the expansion of trade between their two countries and promised to strengthen ties with Moscow. This was reported by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.


At the beginning of the talks, Xi noted that he had met twice this year with Russian President Vladimir Putin and noted the active communication between the governments, legislative bodies and local authorities of the two countries.


"In the first eleven months of this year, bilateral trade between China and Russia reached 200 billion US dollars, showing strong resilience and broad prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries," Xi said.


He added that the Chinese economy has strong stability and great potential, and China's openness and high-quality development create new opportunities for various countries, including Russia, to develop.


"China supports the Russian people in choosing their own path of development... and the preservation and enhancement of China-Russia relations is a strategic choice of both countries based on the fundamental interests of their peoples," the Chinese leader said.


He expressed hope that next year's 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia would be "a new starting point for joint progress and comprehensive promotion of economic and social development and realization of national revival."


"Xi called on the two sides to make full use of the advantages of political mutual trust, economic complementarity, infrastructure connectivity and people-to-people exchanges and deepen cooperation in economy, trade and energy, and jointly maintain the security and stability of industrial and supply chains," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.