Putin: Russian Far East Will Be Developed With High-Technology Projects, Cooperation With Asian Partners

Russian high-technology industry can be developed in its Far Eastern region, for cooperation with China and other Asian nations, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in discussion with a Chinese analyst yesterday at the Valdai International Discussion Club in Sochi. Putin was answering a question from Sheng Shiliang, of the Center for Global Challenges at Xinhua, who asked: "Mr. Prime Minister, after your trip to Russia's Far East, will the government have new ideas on how to diversify the region's economic structure, or the national economy as a whole, to emphasize cooperation with Asian countries, not only China?"

Putin called the development of the Far East and East Siberia "a priority in our regional policy. These are vast but scarcely populated territories with huge potential." Developing "their raw materials would be the easiest solution, but even this will not be simple, given the lack of infrastructure. However, we think that high-tech sectors can be developed in Russia's eastern territories," he said. Prerequisites "have been created": these include aircraft production, including Sukhoi combat aircraft and a new modern civilian aircraft project in cooperation with America, France, and Italy; shipbuilding in cooperation with Japan and South Korea; and the Amur region Cosmodrome; as well as building a new city and university at Vladivostok for the 2012 APEC summit.

"[O]ur partners are interested in the mineral resources of East Siberia and the Russian Far East, including oil, natural gas, gold, and coal," Putin said. Large-scale cooperation with China is already underway, "general cooperation in crucial hydrocarbon development.... We hope very much that our relations with China and our other Asian partners will also develop in the other spheres I mentioned."

Putin also dismissed out of hand, that China would threaten Russia in this region. "Foreign experts keep telling us about the threat from China. We are not worried at all," Putin said. "There is the huge Far East, Eastern Siberia, an under-populated territory. And there is powerful China, over a billion people....

"We have co-existed with China for a thousand years. We had difficult moments, and at times better relations, but we know each other very well, and we have got used to respecting each other.... China does not have to populate the Far East and eastern Siberia to get what it needs: natural resources. We have just finished the construction of an oil pipeline. We are ready to build two gas pipelines. We will be supplying coal to them.... China does not want to worsen relations with us to meet its current goals."