Dossiers BRICS Silk Road / Route de la soie Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Russia-China Infrastructure Cooperation Held Up on Crucial Issue: Credit 4 June 2012 While China-Russia cooperation on development of high-speed rail and a trans-Eurasian rail corridor has "huge potential," there are still delays in carrying out the agreements for such cooperation laid out three years ago in the Memo of Understanding signed between the two nations when then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited Beijing in 2009, Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin said June 1. In an interview with the official Chinese news agency Xinhua, Yakunin said that there is no change in Russia’s stance on the construction of high-speed rail, but the State-owned RZD is still seeking suitable finance and profit modes. Yakunin gave the interview at an international conference on developing the Eurasian Landbridge in Sochi, Russia. Yakunin will accompany President Vladimir Putin to China, where the RZD head will meet with China’s railway authorities on further bilateral cooperation. Lyndon LaRouche emphasized the strategic importance of just this crucial factor, in discussing the Russian-Chinese October 2009 agreements. Were China to invest its endangered U.S. dollar reserves in expanding infrastructure, this would give them a real value, and potentially create a basis for U.S. economic cooperation with Russia, China, and India, LaRouche said at the time. Yakunin told Xinhua that Russia will build some 20,000 km of new railways, including 5,000 km of high-speed lines by 2030. "Russia is expected to develop a railway network, including high-speed rail lines, from Kazan and Yekaterinburg [in central Russia] to Khabarovsk and Vladivostok [in the Far East region]," he said. "In this field, we are willing to cooperate with China’s railways and financial institutions. China has rich experience in high-speed rail construction, which creates room for further cooperation between the two countries in this field." Yakunin said the new trans-Eurasian rail corridor is taking shape, thanks to the joint efforts of Russia, China, and Kazakhstan. With the global economic uncertainties, such a corridor will boost the global and regional economy and enhance the competitiveness of the countries of the railway routes, Xinhua reported.