Yuri Trutnev: The Russian government is open to dialogue and will support the implementation of Chinese investment projects in the Far East

Published on: 2026-05-18

Source: Government of the Russian Federation –

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In Harbin, the Deputy Chairman of the Government – Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev and the Deputy Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Gochin held the sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission on Cooperation and Development of the Far East of the Russian Federation and the Northeast of the People’s Republic of China. The Commission was created to strengthen practical interaction and coordination between the two states in the field of interregional cooperation.

“Russia and China are connected by relations of friendship and partnership, based on mutual respect and trust between two major powers. Despite the existing global instability, our trade and economic ties are growing, contributing to the sustainable development of the economies of both countries. Over the past 8 years, trade turnover between Russia’s Far East and China has increased almost 2.5 times and in 2025 exceeded 1.7 trillion rubles,” Yuri Trutnev opened the meeting.

Speaking at the plenary session, Zhang Gotzin noted that under the leadership of the heads of the two countries, the China-Russia all-encompassing strategic partnership is steadily developing to a high level: “Mutual respect, equality, and mutual benefit vividly characterize our relations, which have become a model of cooperation between major neighbors, bringing stability and certainty in a turbulent world.”

Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Aleksey Chekunkov noted: “Trade and economic ties between the Far East and China — a key investment and foreign trade partner of the macro-region — continue to actively strengthen. This is facilitated by the presence of a common border over 4 thousand kilometers long and the established transport and logistics infrastructure.”Among the priority areas are deepening production cooperation, launching new investment projects using the mechanism of an international advance development territory, modernizing border infrastructure, implementing a joint project on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island in Khabarovsk Krai, expanding technological cooperation using the capabilities of the innovation scientific and technological center created on Russky Island in Primorye.

Issues of expanding trade and economic ties were discussed. “We continue to improve preferential regimes in the Far East, creating maximally comfortable, advantageous, and safe conditions for the economic activities of our Chinese partners. The Russian government has developed a new mechanism — an international advanced development territory, allowing the implementation of joint projects based on an international agreement. We exchanged positions,” said Yuri Trutnev.

Attention has been given to the development of technological cooperation. By the order of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, an innovative scientific and technological center is being created on Russky Island, where bases for research and development in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, artificial intelligence and big data, industrial and mobile robots, and unmanned aerial vehicles will be located. In the opinion of Yuri Trutnev, the center may become a key platform for advanced scientific and technological developments and experience exchange.

Cooperation in the transport and logistics sector was considered. Among the directions of cooperation, interaction in the field of tourism was noted. A readiness was expressed to deepen cultural cooperation between the Russian Far East and Northeast China, to encourage the participation of leading creative teams from their countries in international cultural events held by the other side, to support the participation of a larger number of cities from both countries in the Russian-Chinese fair of culture and arts.

At the meeting of the commission, the heads of the Far Eastern regions spoke.

According to the governor of Primorsky Krai, Oleg Kozhemyako, last year the volume of foreign trade in Primorye grew by 15% and reached 8 billion US dollars. The border checkpoints, through which trade with China is carried out, play an important role in cooperation. Last year, the cargo traffic only through automobile checkpoints increased by 29% and amounted to more than 3.3 million tons. A positive trend is also observed in the field of investment cooperation. At the beginning of 2026, entrepreneurs from the PRC invested 6.2 billion rubles, or almost 50% of the total actual foreign investments in the region.In Primorye, 66 projects are being implemented with the participation of Chinese investors within the framework of the TIR and FTA regimes, including a large-scale agro-tech park of the company “LegendAgro”.

“The Chinese side is our reliable partner. We have confirmed mutual interest in accelerating the development of checkpoints, creating new automobile and railway crossings through Argun, implementing automated cargo systems, as well as removing existing barriers. This will bring our cooperation to a fundamentally new level,” said the governor of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Alexander Osipov.

As noted by the Governor of the Amur Region Vasily Orlov, Priamurye is a key link in Russian-Chinese cross-border cooperation. “By order of the President of Russia Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, the city of Blagoveshchensk is becoming the Center of competencies for Russian-Chinese business cooperation at the federal level. We are ready to share our practical experience of working with Chinese colleagues,” he explained.

The Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Aisen Nikolaev, gave a detailed account of the project to create a new international transport corridor “Moscow – Naiba” as part of the Trans-Arctic transport corridor. The head of the region also proposed the initiative to establish a joint working group to agree on the conditions for attracting Chinese cargo and synchronizing with the Chinese initiative “Polar Silk Road.”

The Head of the Republic of Buryatia, Alexey Tsydenov, sees great potential for mutually beneficial cooperation across a range of areas with the PRC. Above all, this concerns transport and logistics using the new customs-logistics terminal “Kyasta,” which already today allows Chinese exporters and state trading corporations to significantly reduce time and financial costs when delivering goods by land transport through transit across Mongolia. Special attention is given to the organization of direct air communication between Ulan-Ude and cities in the PRC.The need to open direct flights concerns all spheres of activity – from agriculture, industry, logistics to education and healthcare.

A new passenger terminal has been launched in the Kamchatka Territory at the international airport Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Yelizovo), which allows increasing the number of flights from large cities in Russia, as well as opening air communication with China, taking into account the planned opening of the international checkpoint in 2026. “The most important strategic task, which we are already working on, is the launch of direct air communication between Kamchatka and China, since we see a huge demand for this from the residents of the territory,” noted the governor of the Kamchatka Territory, Vladimir Solodov.

Summing up the meeting, Yuri Trutnev emphasized the dynamic development of relations between the two countries: “This is the foundation for stability in international relations throughout the world. We are ready to develop cooperation with China in all the listed areas of work. The Russian government is open to dialogue and will support the implementation of Chinese investment projects in the Far East. Our meeting took place on the eve of the visit of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin to Beijing, and we will report on the results of the negotiations to the leaders of our countries in the near future.”The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also invited the Chinese side to participate in the Eastern Economic Forum.

At the session of the sixth meeting of the Intergovernmental Russian-Chinese Commission on Cooperation and Development of the Far East of the Russian Federation and the Northeast of China, the third Business Council on Cooperation of the Far East of Russia and the Northeast of China was held. The Business Council is a key instrument for the development of bilateral trade-economic and investment partnership. More than 200 representatives of over 100 Russian and Chinese companies participated in the third Business Council.The extensive program included both official and business parts aimed at expanding practical interaction among the entrepreneurial circles of the two countries. The “Roscongress” Foundation acted as a co-organizer of the third business council meeting and provided support for organizing the business contacts exchange and business meetings.

“We would like to suggest to the business council to work out issues related to the creation of a mechanism for the exchange of experience in the field of technologies. I believe this is very important. We will also carefully study the proposals of the business council, give necessary assignments to ministries and departments for consideration in their work. I wish all members of the business council success. I am confident that government support of our countries will create the necessary conditions for the implementation of the planned initiatives,” noted Yuri Trutnev.

Zhang Gotsin suggested that the business council pay attention to the following areas of work: revealing the advantages of border regions, using political incentives, including the updated Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the encouragement and mutual protection of investments. Among the areas of technological interaction between the businesses of the two countries, Zhang Gotsin highlighted cooperation in the fields of logistics, e-commerce, the green economy, and artificial intelligence.

At the third business council, issues in the fields of transport and logistics, shipbuilding, agriculture, energy, and tourism were discussed. The parties shared experience on increasing mutual trade indicators and attracting investment in joint projects. The possibility of opening permanent business council representative offices in Vladivostok and Beijing was also discussed.

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