Traveling from the SCO Summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, President Putin arrived in Vladivostok on September 2 to attend the Eastern Economic Forum. On his first day, he held a series of meetings, and visited some of the projects that had been earlier set in motion to transform the region into an Asian-Pacific industrial hub. He visited the Zvezda shipbuilding complex, which he had commissioned in 2016. There, they are building ships which are equipped with new rudder-propellers that can improve navigation through the ice by moving the stern first. He also visited the new icebreaker, a gas tanker, the “Pyotr Stolypin,” which is being prepared for a customer. He also went aboard a large-freezer fishing trawler. Called the “Captain Yurnak”, one of the most modern in the world, it is designed to catch and process 60,000 tons of fish annually, and is equipped with a modern factory that can operate in challenging weather conditions.
During his first day, Putin also held a meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh to discuss their political and trade relations. A planned new pipeline, previously called Power of Siberia II, and now relabeled the “Power of Baikal,” may also have been a topic of discussion, since this line, as envisioned, will traverse Mongolia into China. Putin also had a bilateral meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, who is the Chinese representative at the EEF, and who also oversees energy cooperation. This meeting was attended by most of the Russian economic officials attending the EEF, and by a number of business representatives.
