When speaking of Sino-Russian relations at a press conference on January 16, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the volume of Russia-China trade reached a new high in 2018. On international affairs, Russia and China supported each other under multilateral frameworks. Russia and China are so friendly because they are neighbors and strategic partners. The two countries share many common interests and both sides believe that the world needs to be more stable and safe.
Hua Chunying, the spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that China highly appreciates Lavrov’s positive comments on Sino-Russian relations. In 2018, under President Xi Jinping and President Putin’s strategic guidance, Sino-Russian relations achieved unprecedented development and have gained fruitful results in every field.
Hua Chunying emphasized that there is no end to the deepening of the friendship between China and Russia and there are no restricted areas for expanding their cooperation. Statistics from the General Administration of Customs of China show that the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia reached a record high of US$107.06 billion in 2018, surpassing US$100 billion for the first time, with a growth rate of 27.1 percent. The main exports to Russia include mechanical and electrical products; the main imports from Russia are concentrated in energy resources such as crude oil, coal and sawn timber.
Source: Sputnik News, January 17, 2019
http://sputniknews.cn/politics/201901171027383157/