BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2020) China is ready neither to reopen checkpoints on the border with Russia nor agree to Moscow's proposal to organize temporary border corridors for passengers, due to continuing COVID-19 concerns, Russian Consul General in the city of Harbin Vladimir Oschepkov told Sputnik on Wednesday.
"The situation with the operation of border crossing points on the Russian-Chinese border in terms of passenger traffic remains the same. Although we regularly address the Chinese side with the initiative to organize temporary corridors on the border, they are not ready for this yet," the diplomat said.
Oschepkov noted that China was closely monitoring the epidemiological situation in the Russian border regions, which continue registering new infections. Thus, according to the Russian COVID-19 response center, 25 new cases of COVID-19 were detected on Tuesday in the Zabaykalsky Territory.
"Of course, this causes concerns among Chinese partners, who have already faced the second wave of the epidemic in April and fear its repetition. Truth be told, the local authorities then did not manage to cope with the large number of infected people arriving from abroad," Oschepkov stated.
At the same time, the diplomat expressed hope that Russian-Chinese border crossings would soon reopen for passengers and pledged that the Russian side would make every effort for that.
