The delegation of the Presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organization and the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations held talks on 17 November 2009 in Beijing with leaders of the Chinese State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA).
The aim of the talk was work out specific mechanisms for developing Russian-Chinese Relations in religious sphere in accordance with the Action Plan adopted by the heads of the two states for implementing the Treaty on Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China for 2009-2012.
The Russian party included Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations and member of the Presidential Council for Religious Affairs; A. Kudryavtsev, the Council executive secretary; Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman; E. Tomikhin, minister-counsellor of the Russian embassy in China; A. Kozlov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Asia department; A. Povalyaev, first secretary of the Russian embassy, and D. Petrovsky and I. Kopeikin, DECR staff members.
The Chinese side was represented by Mr. Jiang Jianyong, SARA deputy director, Mr. Liu Zinguan, deputy head of a SARA department, Mr. Liu Jingguang, deputy head of a SARA department, Mr. Wan Yanming, SARA inspector, Mr. Qi Yue, representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, and staff members of the SARA Xue Hui, Guo Yong, Hu Deping and Xu Xiyuan.