Russia and China are discussing more than 30 joint economic projects in a variety of areas from petrochemicals to banking, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said on Saturday after visiting China last week. As Russia was hit by new sanctions by the United States and the European Union on Friday over its involvement in Ukraine, Shuvalov said Asian countries such as China did not support the Western sanctions and were keen to cooperate with Russia.
"Yesterday in China we discussed 32 projects. And they cover absolutely everything: petrochemicals, the banking sector, work in the area of food products, and very, very varied projects," Shuvalov said during an appearance on "Vesti on Saturday with Sergey Brilev", a TV discussion programme. "It isn't just gold, oil, gas and copper that we discussed yesterday," Shuvalov said. "And in general many people in Russia are under the impression that China is only interested in natural resources."