China-Russia expo highlights high-tech exchanges

In a booth of helicopter design and manufacturing company Russian Helicopters, three model helicopters are catching the eye.

Alexander Mikheev, company CEO, said it is showcasing their newest developments, in particular, the Mi-38 passenger transport helicopter and medium multirole Mi-171A2, which can be operated by both commercial and state helicopter operators in China.

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Upgraded Expo

The first China-Russia Exposition is an upgraded version of the China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair that was initiated in 1990.

The "upgrade" can be seen as one of the many measures that now Russia and China jointly undertake to strengthen their trade and economic ties, to stimulate both investment and region-to-region cooperation, said Associate Professor of St Petersburg State University Leksytuina Yana.

"The expo is expected to promote the expansion and diversification of bilateral trade and economic relations, to give an impetus to Russia-China investment cooperation," she said.

This "upgrade" should be seen within a broader context of Russia's new "pivot to Asia" where China is a major player, according to Alexander Korolev, Associate Professor of the School of Asian Studies of the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

"The most powerful stabilizer of inter-state relations is not armies and missiles, firearms and vessels, but economic cooperation," he said, "economic interactions create the most powerful links which cannot be broken overnight."

Russia is a major trade partner of China. Bilateral trade volume neared $90 billion in 2013. In the first four months of 2014, bilateral trade volume grew by 3.4 percent year on year to $29.06 billion, official statistics showed.

Besides economic and scientific cooperation, the expo is also a platform for cultural, educational and people-to-people exchanges.