Closer Russia-China ties help both countries amid financial crisis

Special Report:Global Financial

Crisis

Special Report: Premier Wen visits Russia, Kazakhstan, attends SCO

meeting

MOSCOW, Oct. 27 (Chinese media) -- Russia and China should

make all possible efforts to boost bilateral economic cooperation to counter the

negative impact of the current global financial crisis on the two economies, a

Russian expert said in an interview with Chinese media.

"Closer cooperation between Russia and China will

prevent the ongoing financial crisis from inflicting bad influence on the real

economy of the two countries," said Andrew Ostrovsky, deputy chief of the Far

East Institute of the Russian Academy of Science.

"If the two economies continue to grow at a high

speed, bilateral trade will definitely keep increasing," Ostrovsky said, noting

that bilateral trade has grown rapidly in recent years.

Meanwhile, Ostrovsky said Russia and China should

strengthen cooperation in the field of energy.

"Almost all of Russia's pipelines now extend to the

West, but the fastest growing economies are in the Asia-Pacific region,

especially China... They all have great demand for energy and Russia should

partner with them in this aspect," he said.

In his view, Northeast China, which is an old

industrial base, have broad cooperation prospects with the Russian regions of

Siberia and Far East.

The Russian expert also suggested the two countries

consider using the Chinese yuan or the Russian ruble as a settlement currency in

bilateral trade. This is what already has been going on in border trade between

the two countries and has proved to be mutually beneficial, he said.

Under current conditions, when the Chinese yuan is

rising against the U.S. dollar, the use of the dollar as a settlement currency

would cause losses to both sides, he said.

He thus called on the governments and banks of Russia

and Chinato enhance cooperation and enact relevant policies as early as

possible.