The Chinese side highly appreciates Russian President Vladimir Putin's positive comments on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang said on Friday, noting fruitful achievements have been made between the two countries. 

During the Valdai International Discussion Club this week, Putin said Russia is ready to further strengthen coordination and cooperation with China, noting to cooperatively develop the Northern Sea Route, a strategic shipping passage between Asia and Europe also runs along Russia's Arctic coast, under the framework of the BRI. 

Lu hailed Russia's active support and participation in the China proposed initiative, calling Russia is an important partner to jointly build the BRI. 

China and Russia issued the Joint Statement on Cooperation of Connection Between the Silk Road Economic Belt and Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in 2015. Lu said the process of synergizing the BRI and the EAEU is being promoted steadily. 

China and the EAEU signed an agreement on trade and economic cooperation in May. Lu said, under this framework, China and Russia have deepened their development strategies and made fruitful achievements in fields such as economy, trade, investment, science and technology, energy, and infrastructure.

China is willing to work with Russia to jointly build the BRI, continuously deepen the integration of policies and enlarge pragmatic cooperation, aiming at upgrading the BRI to an important platform for promoting global economic growth and international economic cooperation, said Lu.