The Consul General appreciated the importance of opening a bridge between Russia and China

Consul General of the Russian Federation in Harbin Vladimir Oshchepkov. File photoBEJING, Jun 10The opening of cargo traffic on the road bridge on the border of Russia and China through the Kani-Kurgan-Heihe checkpoint will give a new impetus to the development of a number of areas of cooperation between the two countries, Vladimir Oshchepkov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Harbin, told RIA Novosti. bridge Blagoveshchensk (Russia) — Heihe (China) across the Amur River. According to the Consul General, the start of the new border crossing is very timely in the current situation, when cargo flows between Russia and China are rapidly expanding and the volume of bilateral trade operations is growing. «Its opening looks especially relevant against the backdrop of a decrease in the capacity of many border crossings due to ongoing anti-epidemic restrictions in China,» Oshchepkov said. According to him, the bridge will give «an impetus to the development of other areas of practical cooperation» between Russia and China. shipment of liquefied carbohydrates to China or other dangerous goods for transportation,» he added. Oshchepkov stressed that in order to reduce the risk of cross-border spread of coronavirus, when organizing traffic on the bridge, they will apply the best practices of anti-epidemic control and at the same time maintain the continuous operation of the checkpoint. «In addition, at present, Russian and Chinese specialized organizations are studying the possibility of using unmanned technologies on the bridge, which practically eliminates the risks of the spread of coronavirus infection,» the diplomat said. Speaking about the further development of the Russian-Chinese cross-border infrastructure, the Consul General noted that a new bridge across the Amur in the area of ​​settlements Nizhneleninskoye — Tongjiang. The construction of a cable car between Blagoveshchensk and Heihe is also successfully underway.Trutnev appreciated the importance of opening a bridge from Russia to ChinaThe construction of the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe (China) cross-border crossing across the Amur began in December 2016 in the Blagoveshchensk district of the Amur region and was carried out simultaneously from both banks. It was planned to open the bridge in November 2020, but due to the difficult epidemiological situation, the launch of the facility had to be postponed. The construction of the bridge cost 19 billion rubles, of which 14 billion was the volume of investments in Russian territory. The length of the bridge is 1080 meters. It is two-lane, the total width of the carriageway is 11 meters. The bridge itself from span to span is 18.2 meters. The total length of the bridge crossing is about 20 kilometers. This includes six kilometers of road in China and 13 kilometers of access roads in Russia, in which another 278 meters is a bridge over the Kanikurganskaya channel. According to the terms of reference, 630 trucks, 164 buses and 68 cars will be able to pass through the bridge every day. According to the General Customs Administration of the People's Republic of China, the trade turnover between Russia and China in the first five months of 2022 increased by 28.9% compared to the same period in 2021 and amounted to $65.81 billion. At the end of 2021, the trade turnover between Russia and China increased by 35.8% and amounted to a record $146.887 billion.