Joint trade rises

Ambassador Zhang said, "The outbreak has had an unprecedented impact on economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia, and practical cooperation between the two countries is facing a severe test."

However, he said joint trade and economic exchanges, customs clearance of goods, and freight train services between China and Europe had not been disrupted by the pandemic.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, trade between the two countries reached $25.4 billion in the first quarter of this year, up by 3.4 percent year-on-year.

Zhang said, "This is particularly valuable in the context of the global economic downturn and shows that economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia has potential and resilience.

"Such cooperation has not only withstood the pressure brought by the pandemic, but has also injected new impetus into expanding bilateral practical cooperation in the future."

The ambassador said he was pleased to see that bilateral cooperation in political, diplomatic, economic, trade, cultural and other fields had not been seriously affected by the pandemic, and was overcoming difficulties and making steady progresses.

China is ready to work with Russia to jointly overcome the outbreak, and to accelerate bilateral cooperation in various areas with closer exchanges and cooperation in order to strive for higher-level development and deliver tangible results for people from the two countries, Zhang said.