Russia’s Volga Federal District eyes direct flights to China - deputy envoy

CHANGSHA /China/, July 16. /TASS/. Russia’s Volga Federal District needs to launch direct flights to China in order to improve cooperation, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian President to the Volga Federal District Oleg Mashkovtsev said in an interview with TASS. Mashkovtsev attended the opening ceremony of the Sixth Russian-Chinese Youth Forum ‘Volga-Yangtze’ held in the city of Changsha in central China’s Hunan province on Tuesday. "By the way, the Council [the Volga-Yangtze Inter-regional Cooperation Council - TASS] discussed vigorously the necessity of direct lights in order to promote tourism, among other benefits. Unfortunately, we do not have direct air connection with China from the Volga Federal District and undoubtedly, this limits our cooperation," he said adding that the direct freight rail route to China was also under consideration. As far as cities are concerned, which might be linked by direct flights, an influx of tourists should be formed first, according to Mashkovtsev. He explained that the initiative should include more cities rather than just those located in the upper and middle courses of the Yangtze River, as they had already forged close ties with the Volga Federal District within the framework of the ‘Volga-Yangtze’ council. The Russian presidential envoy recalled that 14 agreements between the District’s regions and China’s provinces were signed at the third meeting of the Volga-Yangtze Inter-regional Cooperation Council held in Cheboksary this May. "It is a well-established, 6.5-year-long relationship. Naturally, nobody does not even think to stop this cooperation as it is deepening further and further," he noted. The Volga-Yangtze project was launched by the Russian and Chinese leaders in 2013 with the aim to forge ties between the two countries’ regions. It involves cooperation in various fields between the regions of the Russian Volga Federal District and China’s provinces located in the upper and middle streams of the Yangtze River flow. The first meeting of the Volga-Yangtze Inter-regional Cooperation Council took place in Ulyanovsk in 2016. Read more