MOSCOW, May 21 (RIA Novosti) – Having signed a gas agreement, Russia and China may agree on further investment and transportation cooperation in the coming years, Head of the State Duma Committee for the CIS Affairs Leonid Slutsky said Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Russia and China signed a 30-year contract for the supply of Russian gas to China via an eastern route in a deal worth $400 billion.
"This agreement is most important, but not the last among those that can be signed and implemented in the coming years of cooperation in the sphere of investments and important infrastructure projects, in the creation of new logistics centers, transport projects," Slutsky told RIA Novosti.
Given the current situation, Russia should “turn its attention to strengthening the close ties with the East, the ties that connected our countries for centuries," he said.
"Sino-Russian cooperation is one of the centers of gravity of the world economic architecture of the 21st century," Slutsky added.
In March 2013, Gazprom and CNPC signed a memorandum of understanding on the planned gas supplies to China along the eastern route via the Power of Siberia pipeline. The signing of the contract has been delayed several times as the two sides failed to reach an agreement citing a pricing issue as the main stumbling block. President Putin’s current visit to China was the final stage in the negotiating process.
The Gazprom CEO said earlier the company could receive advance payment from China for the gas, which could start flowing as early as 2018. The planned project has an estimated capacity to pump up to 38 billion cubic meters annually, which could later increase to 60 billion cubic meters.
