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TASHKENT, June 23 (Xinhua) -- China, Russia and Mongolia inked a development plan here on Thursday to build an economic corridor linking the three neighbors, pledging to boost transportation connectivity and economic cooperation in border regions.

The plan was signed after a meeting of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent ahead of an annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

While chairing the trilateral meeting, the third of its kind, the Chinese president reviewed the achievements the three countries have made in implementing their mid-term roadmap for cooperation, saying progress and positive results have been made in such areas as trade and economy, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, transit transport, tourism and sports.

"The Chinese side is satisfied with the momentum of our trilateral cooperation," Xi said.

He proposed that the three countries continue to center on the aligning of China's Silk Road Economic Belt initiative, Russia's development strategies, especially its transcontinental rail plan, and Mongolia's Steppe Road program to actively advance the trilateral cooperation.

Xi called on the three countries to well implement the development plan to build the economic corridor and strengthen cooperation in transportation infrastructure connectivity, port construction, industrial capacity, investment, trade and economy, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and environmental protection, thus producing outcomes at an early date.

"We three sides should actively engage in the discussion of building cross-border economic cooperation zones, enhance industrial tie-in, boost sub-regional cooperation in our adjacent areas, and promote the common development of our adjacent areas," Xi said.

The Chinese president also urged the three countries to expand cooperation within the framework of the SCO, especially in such areas as transit transportation, food security, disaster reduction and energy.

Putin said Russia, China and Mongolia are friendly neighbors based on equality, respect and mutual benefit.

He said Russia, in light of the three countries' consensus, is committed to working with China and Mongolia to well implement the projects of transportation and infrastructure construction, speed up simplifying port procedures, and promote regional economic integration process.

Russia is also willing to increase cultural and people-to-people exchanges with the other two countries, he added.

For his part, Elbegdorj said the development plan on the economic corridor linking the three countries is very important, adding that Mongolia stands ready to join hands with China and Russia to advance the construction of transportation infrastructure and strengthen economic cooperation in border regions.

Mongolia also hopes to enhance cooperation with the other two countries in agriculture and disaster relief, he said.

After the meeting, the three heads of state also witnessed the signing of a trilateral agreement on the mutual recognition of the customs supervision results on certain commodities.

The 16th meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State is scheduled to be held in Tashkent on Thursday and Friday.

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Tashkent/MONTSAME/ On June 23, a tripartite meeting of leaders of Mongolia, China and Russia was held for the third time in Tashkent city, Uzbekistan on sidelines of the 16th Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

The first ever meeting of the state heads of the three countries took place at initiative of President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj in September 2014 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan and the second meeting was hosted in July 2015 in Ufa city, Russia.

This time, the leaders of the three states made a point on actions the sides plan to carry out in near future.

President of China noted that following their meeting in Ufa, a roadmap was adopted for developing trilateral cooperation for mid-term prospective, which is being actively implemented by related ministries, local authorities and companies of the three countries. The sides are effectively coordinating projects in the fields of trade, economy, humanitarian links, transit transport, tourism and sports. Positive results are vivid. The current meeting will be resulted in signing an essential cooperation document which is a program on building economic corridor, highlighted Mr Xi Jinping.

In his turn, President of Russia V.Putin noted “Traditional friendly relations link Russia with China and Mongolia. A program has been designed on building the economic corridor between Russia, China and Mongolia as a step towards delivering Ufa agreements. It aims at significant stimulation of border relations through launching over 30 tripartite investment projects. ”

Russian side found perspective a Mongolian idea to establish a joint investment projecting center which will serve to work out new proposals on cooperation in the areas of transport, building communications and electricity lines, and energy supply routes.

Thereby, President Putin made an emphasis on infrastructural initiatives. In particular, Russian business is ready to engage in modernization of the Ulaanbaatar railways in order to increase its carrying capacity up to 100 million tons of freight per year.

V. Putin stressed that further facilitation of customs procedures will be conducive to enhancing trade relations between the three countries, including border ties. An agreement on mutual recognition of results of customs checks which was signed same day in presence of the three leaders serves this purpose.

The Russian President also touched upon a range of issues concerning energy supply to Mongolia, cooperation in the tourism sector, promoting academic exchange and highlighted that trilateral partnership has a good potential in many fields to be used for prosperity of our nations.

President of Mongolia Ts.Elbegdorj touched upon implementation of the program on building economic corridor. Thereby, he proposed choosing ready for implementation projects out of 32 projects and seeking their financial sources. Taking into consideration that the parties were agree to create a mechanism of investment center, he suggested making it happen within 2016.

Secondly, in frames of stimulation of cooperation in the fields of roads and transport, Mongolia proposed holding consultations of transport ministries of the three countries on regular basis, which are real mechanism for forwarding railway projects. It is planned to hold the third meeting in August-September in Ulaanbaatar with a view to discuss the pressing issues.

Thirdly, trilateral cooperation priorities shall be identified. Our cooperation cannot be restricted only with economic corridor, transport and customs matters. Regional cooperation is one of the priorities. We are principally backing Chinese ideas on developing cooperation of eastern regions of Mongolia, Russia and China. Mongolian side is ready to further designating a corresponding cooperation roadmap.

Mongolia considers possible to develop trilateral cooperation in the areas of agriculture, prevention and combating of disasters and their aftermaths.

The President of Mongolia wished to hold a trilateral summit in Ulaanbaatar in order to stimulate our cooperation and expressed a confidence that the trilateral mutually beneficial collaboration will make a great contribution to the development of not only our countries, but also the region as a whole.

President Xi Jinping said the sides have to forward trilateral cooperation on the basis of interlocking Chinese initiative Economic belt Silk Road, Russian strategies on building transeurasian corridor and Mongolian initiative Steppe Road.

Emphasizing responsible implementation of the program on building economic corridor, President Xi Jinping forwarded proposals related to possibilities of creating trilateral zone, making focus on constructing infrastructure, border trade, industrialization, tourism, humanitarian ties, combining efforts in the industrial sphere and promoting subregional cooperation in the interests of developing border regions of the three countries.

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LONDON (Reuters) -- Voting closed in Britain's bitterly fought referendum on whether to quit the European Union on Thursday, with a prominent Leave campaigner saying he expected to lose and early surveys suggesting voters had chosen to remain in the bloc.