Russia and China will discuss ways to boost bilateral cooperation in the course of the four-day visit to Moscow by Premier of the Chinese State Council Zhu Rongji, which begins on Wednesday. Zhu is due to meet with President Boris Yeltsin and hold talks with Premier Yevgeny Primakov within the framework of the fourth regular meeting between the heads of the Russian and Chinese governments. "We hope that the upcoming meeting will give a powerful impulse to the development of trade and economic cooperation," Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Wu Tao told Itar-Tass on Tuesday. Special attention will be given to new ways of interaction, capable of bringing two-way trade on a new level. To this end, the parties are planning to discuss large oil and gas projects, including the development of fields in the Ukrutsk region, and the on-going construction of a nuclear power plant in eastern China. Moscow and Beijing will also discuss such projects as Chinese investments in Moscow's economy, the establishment of free trade zones on the border and direct cooperation between provinces. The parties are expected to discuss acute international problems, including the Kosovo and Iraqi issues, NATO's expansion and the sphere of operation of the Japanese-US military agreement. In the course of the present visit, Moscow and Beijing intend to sign some 15 documents, including protocols on trade and economic cooperation in 1999 and protection of intellectual property, and a general agreement on feasibility study for building a pipeline from the Kovyktinskoye gas condensate field in the Russian Irkutsk region. Four agreements are now in the works on inter-regional cooperation between Liaoning and Bashkiria, Jilin and the Maritime Territory, Shanghai and the Amur region and Xinjiang Uygur and the Altai territory. An agreement is expected to be signed on China's purchase of trading space for two supermarkets in central Moscow. Other documents envision the establishment of a Chinese busine ... Read more