China and Russia cemented more than 40 cooperation deals yesterday after talks between Premier Li Keqiang and his Russian counterpart. The deals cover nuclear energy, financing, transport, communications and tourism, and come as Russia struggles with its most serious stand-off with the West since the cold war. Russian gas exporter Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp had also begun talks on natural gas deliveries via a West Route pipeline, which will connect gas deposits in western Serbia and the northwestern part of China through Russia's Altai region, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky said. Gazprom and CNPC agreed in May on a US$400 billion natural gas deal that will see Russia supplying China with 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually starting from 2019. In his talks with Li, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described the relationship between the two nations as a strategic partnership. "We have a very ambitious agenda. We are to talk in an expanded format and also take part in the signing of a great amount of documents drafted in preparation for the visit," he was quoted by Russia's TASS news agency as saying. Li also met Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin and said the strategic partnership between the two countries was expanding. "China is willing to launch deep and comprehensive cooperation and exchange with Russia to push forward the development of the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership," he was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Li will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin today before wrapping up his Russian tour. Russia is looking to bolster natural gas sales to Asia as differences between Moscow and the European Union sparked by the Ukraine crisis threaten to erode its European market. The US$400 billion natural gas deal had been under discussion for more than a decade because both sides could not agree on prices, but the deal was reached in May as Moscow faced sanctions from the West. Analysts said the agreement was a better deal for China than Russia. Li will head to Italy after Russia to attend the Asia-Europe Meeting summit in Milan. Meanwhile, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was unlikely to hold bilateral talks with Li and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of the Milan summit. But Abe sought to hold a meeting with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in November in Beijing, the report said, citing a Japanese government source. Agence France-Presse, Reuters