Chinese President Xi Jinping had a video call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Monday afternoon, as the two heads of state jointly witnessed the launching ceremony of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline. 

Xi, in Beijing, hailed the pipeline as a landmark project of China-Russia energy cooperation, describing it as a model of win-win cooperation between the two countries. He called on both sides to ensure the project's safety and reliability and promote sustainable economic and social development in areas along the pipeline. 

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This year marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and Russia, Xi said, noting that the two countries agreed to upgrade their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for a new era. 

"Both China and Russia are at a crucial development stage and bilateral ties have entered a new era," he said. "I hope both sides will make further efforts to build more key projects like the east-route natural gas pipeline to facilitate the two countries' development and benefit their peoples." 

Putin said in Russia's Sochi that inauguration of the pipeline is of historic significance and will bring bilateral strategic coordination to new heights.

Russia will supply China with 1 trillion cubic meters of natural gas in the next 30 years, Putin noted, adding this will help to implement his consensus with Xi to increase bilateral trade volume to 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2024. 

The cross-border gas pipeline has a 3,000-km section in Russia and a 5,111-km stretch in China. It starts from Russia's east Siberia and runs to the border city of Blagoveshchensk, before entering China through Heihe in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. The Chinese section stretches from Heihe to Shanghai in the east. 

The pipeline is scheduled to provide China with 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas in 2020 and the amount is expected to increase to 38 billion cubic meters annually from 2024, under a 30-year contract worth 400 billion U.S. dollars signed between the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and Russian gas giant Gazprom in May 2014. 

(With input from Xinhua) 

(Cover: Chinese President Xi Jinping has a video call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing to witness the launching ceremony of the China-Russia east-route natural gas pipeline, December 2, 2019. /Xinhua Photo)