ISTANBUL

Beijing is eager to uphold “the original aspiration of eternal friendship” with Moscow, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday during their meeting in the Kremlin.

Li said China's determination and position to develop mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia “have always been consistent,” according to state-run Xinhua News.

He said that in the face of a volatile international situation, Beijing is willing to “further enhance the resilience of cooperation with Russia, consolidate and maintain the steady development (and) momentum of bilateral cooperation.”

The Chinese premier urged both sides to make full use of mutual benefits like visa-free travel, strengthen public exchanges and understanding, and further solidify people-to-people ties.

“China stands ready to work with Russia to uphold the original aspiration of eternal friendship, enhance alignment of development strategies, deepen cooperation in various fields, achieve more practical results, so as to better serve the development and rejuvenation of the two countries,” Li said.

The premier arrived in Moscow on Monday to attend a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) Council of Heads of Government, which took place on Tuesday.

During his meeting with Li, Putin said that close cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in this format helped the SCO's emergence as "one of the pillars of a multipolar world order," among others.

According to a Kremlin transcript of his opening remarks, he said the two countries will continue to develop trade cooperation in line with approved long-term plans and highlighted the importance of ensuring "reliable protection of our trade and economic cooperation from negative external influences."

"The implementation of a wide range of joint industry projects in energy, industry, space, and agriculture will contribute to elevating our partnership to a new level and strengthening its technological foundation," he added.

Putin also said bolstering bilateral contacts between their peoples will be facilitated by China's decision to introduce a visa-free regime for Russian citizens, and that mirror decisions will come into effect in Russia "very soon."

"I am confident that this will have very significant consequences in both the economic and humanitarian spheres. In my view, this will be a positive boost to the development of our relations," the Russian president argued.