Chinese President Xi Jinping is calling on China, Russia and Mongolia to push forward the construction of an economic corridor linking the three nations.
He was speaking at a meeting with the Russian and Mongolian Presidents on the sidelines of the annual summits of the BRICS countries and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in the southwestern Russian city of Ufa.
Xi Jinping says economic cooperation is the priority area of trilateral cooperation.
"China and Russia, China and Mongolia, Russia and Mongolia are neighbors and strategic partners. We have a good basis and a good potential for our trilateral cooperation and our long-term strategy is to promote overall trilateral cooperation."
The Chinese leader expressed hope the three countries can align China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with Russia's transcontinental rail plan and Mongolia's Prairie Road program, and push forward the construction of the China-proposed trilateral economic corridor.
He said the linking of those development strategies is important for boosting regional economic cooperation and the development of the Eurasian continent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he's pleased to see smooth cooperation in railway transportation, tourism and other sectors since the first trilateral meeting of the three countries was held last year.
For his part, Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said the people of the three countries will benefit from the trilateral cooperation on railway transportation, logistics, facilitation of agricultural and mineral trade, infrastructure construction and other sectors.
During the meeting, the three heads of state approved a roadmap for the development of trilateral cooperation and witnessed the signing of several documents.
