Putin to meet leaders of Japan, China and Indonesia on sidelines of APEC summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Sinzho Abe and Chinese and Indonesian leaders Xi Jinping and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bali, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said. The Russian president was expected to meet his U.S. counterpart Barrack Obama, but he cancelled his visit to Indonesia over the shutdown of the U.S. government, Ushakov said. Putin will hold talks with Abe on October 7 and it will be their fourth meeting this year, “which proves high dynamics of bilateral political dialogue,” Ushakov said, adding that the two countries were stepping up relations at other levels. In particular, the first two-plus-two meeting of Russian and Japanese foreign and defence ministers will take place in November. “Putin and Abe are expected to discuss stronger cooperation in trade, economy and investments,” the aide said, recalling that last year’s trade turnover reached $31.2 billion and continued its growth this year - in January-July it increased by 7.2 percent to $19 billion. Among main areas of cooperation Ushakov named energy, including hydrocarbons supplies, the creation of petrochemical enterprises in Russia and modernisation of gas pipeline networks. Moreover, Russia and Japan enhanced cooperation in energy-saving technologies and renewable sources of energy. This year’s third meeting between Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is scheduled for October 8. Russia and China “pay the highest attention to better quality of economic relations and deeper cooperation in high technologies,” Ushakov said. On September 17, the countries finalised a list of projects with a total value of 20 billion dollars. “Stronger energy cooperation, including Russian oil and gas supplies, export of electric power and construction of nuclear power generating units offer us great opportunities,” Ushakov said. The Kremlin highlights effective interaction between Russia and China on the international scene and within the framework of such structures as the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, BRICS (a group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the Group of Twenty and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation organisation. “Putin and Xi plan to discuss pressing global and regional issues and further steps to develop bilateral cooperation,” the aide said. “They will put a focus on coordination of the two countries’ actions on the international scene, mainly Syria’s crisis, Iran’s nuclear programme and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.” The Russian and Indonesian leaders plan to synchronise watches on investment cooperation. “Vladimir Putin and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will consider key areas of the two countries’ trade and economic cooperation and ways to boost it, mainly through investment,” Ushakov said, noting that Russian-Indonesian trade totalled $2.87 billion last year, growing by 12 percent in January-June 2013. “By the end of the year it is expected to exceed $3 billion,” he said. “Large-scale infrastructure projects, including construction of a rail line by Russian Railways and adjacent infrastructure in Kalimantan, on Borneo Island, will give a fresh impetus to cooperation,” Ushakov said. Moreover, the Kremlin sees bright prospects in hi-tech projects. Russia will supply 12 Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional airliners to Indonesia and plans to deploy the Glonass satellite navigation system on Indonesian territory. The two countries also want to set up a joint venture to build satellite equipment. The two presidents will also exchange opinions on urgent international and regional problems. “Russia highly appreciates adherence of Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, to political settlement of the crisis in Syria,” Ushakov said.