INNOVATION SHOW: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev visit the exhibition of an international forum themed open innovation in Moscow on October 14 (RAO AIMIN)

Innovation was also highlighted during Li's visit to Russia and Italy. The Chinese premier attended an international forum themed open innovation in Moscow on October 14. In Italy, he attended the "innovation week" meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

The innovation partnership is not exclusive to Germany, Cui said. He added that China's call to building innovative bilateral relations covers a broad space and other European countries can benefit from the new partnership.

Since he assumed office as Chinese premier, Li has continually emphasized the crucial role of innovation in China's development.

In May, Li vowed to make innovation the strong impetus for driving the Chinese economy to upgrade, in his speech at the opening ceremony of the third annual meeting of the Global Research Council in Beijing.

Diversified cooperation

Li's visit to Russia saw the signing of 39 cooperation agreements in broad fields between the two countries, including natural gas supply, high-speed railway construction, currency swap, high technology and finance.

Chen Yurong, Director of the Department of Eura-Asia Research under the CIIS, told Xinhua News Agency that China-Russia cooperation is not limited to energy.

China's central bank has signed a currency swap agreement worth 150 billion yuan ($24 billion) with the Russian central bank, which will facilitate bilateral trade and investment between China and Russia.

Deepening cooperation on finance and currency is a major direction for China and Russia at present. With this agreement, enterprises of the two countries are able to complete transactions more conveniently, Chen said.

Today, China is recovering the prosperity of its old industrial base in the northeast and Russia is making efforts to develop its Far East region. The two neighboring regions have a strong thirst to do business. As a result, the demand for currency swaps is increasing, Chen said.

She added that a planned Eurasian high-speed transport corridor linking Beijing and Moscow which will promote people-to-people exchanges for the two giant neighbors.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Italy comprehensive strategic partnership.

During Li's visit, the two countries also inked a slew of new cooperation documents on trade, investment, infrastructure construction, energy, finance and innovation.

Speaking at a joint press conference on October 14 with his Italian counterpart Renzi, Li stressed that China and Italy, both heirs to great ancient civilizations, enjoy inborn advantages in people-to-people exchanges, and the two sides should continue to deepen cooperation in culture, education and tourism.