China and Russia pledged to strengthen cooperation along the Yangtze and Volga rivers as local governments from these areas on Thursday signed an array of cooperation deals.

The third meeting of the Council of Cooperation between the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the Volga Federal District was co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Wang Yong and Igor Komarov, Russia's Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Volga Federal District, in the Russian city of Cheboksary.

Wang said that both sides should work to achieve more outcomes from local governments cooperation and make such partnership a new growth area for China-Russia relations.

Komarov said the unique "Volga-Yangtze" mechanism has been fruitful in trade and investment cooperation as well as people-to-people exchanges, and Russia is ready to work with China for more achievements.