Published by: China News Digest, Monday, June 30, 1997

[CND, 06/29/97] Chinese Premier LI Peng and visiting Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin last Friday formalized a mechanism for regular meetings between the two countries and witnessed the signing of five bilateral accords, Agence France Presse reported from Beijing.

The accords signed include those on energy cooperation between Siberia and

northern China, maintaining the Russian consulate in Hong Kong, using Russian rolling stock on Chinese railways, and cultural cooperation. "Although our bilateral trade is not so big at the moment, I am confident it will increase to 20 billion dollars by the end of the century because we have lots of possibilities for cooperation, especially in gas, oil and electricity," Li Peng said after the signing.

Chernomyrdin echoed Li's optimism about future trade and called for greater cooperation in defense, transportation and space cooperation. Chernomyrdin arrived in Beijing late Thursday after a brief stop in the southern economic zone of Shenzhen. He left China on Saturday.

(Kewen ZHANG, Guochen WAN)