Russia, for the second time, will be Chinese President Xi Jinping's first foreign destination of a year. In March 2013, Xi took a state visit to Russia a few days after he took office as Chinese President.
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Xi's announced Russian stay from Feb. 6 to 8 and scheduled attendance to the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games will be his first foreign trip in 2014. It will also be the first attendance by a Chinese president at a major overseas sports event, signaling China's strong support for the Olympics and Russia's efforts to host the games.
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Vladimir Putin, then Russian Prime Minister, attended the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.
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Last year, besides Xi's state visit, the Chinese president and Russian President Putin met four times at international events. They were the BRICS summit in Durban of South Africa, the G20 summit in St. Petersburg of Russia, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek of Kyrgyzstan and the informal economic leaders' meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation in Bali of Indonesia.
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In addition, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev visited China in October, holding meetings with President Xi and Premier Li Keqiang.
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During Medvedev's October visit, China and Russia signed an agreement that Russia's biggest oil company Rosneft would supply an additional 10 million tonnes of crude oil to China each year in the coming decade, a deal worth 85b USD.
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A joint-venture oil refinery will be built in Tianjin, with a capacity of processing 16 million tonnes of crude oil each year. China National Petroleum Corporation, the country's largest oil and gas producer and supplier, will hold a 49 percent stake and Rosneft 51 percent.
China imported 24.33 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia in 2012 and has been negotiating on the import of natural gas with Russia.
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After the bilateral trade reached a record high of 88b USD in 2012, the two countries planned to raise the volume to 100b USD by 2015 and 200b USD by 2020.
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The two countries can supplement each other as China has technologies and experience while Russia has natural resources, he added. Â
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Russia, for the second time, will be Chinese President Xi Jinping's first foreign destination of a year. In March 2013, Xi took a state visit to Russia a few days after he took office as Chinese President.
