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CU PULL BACK TO GV Chinese Vice-Premier Yao Yilin and First Deputy Premier of U.S.S.R. Ivan Arkhipov sign three agreements on Economic, Technical and Scientific cooperation. (2 SHOTS)
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SV PULL BACK TO SVs Officials look on as both men sign. (2 SHOTS)
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SV Men exchange signed agreements and hug each other.
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Initials MLE/JRS





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Background: China and the Soviet Union set the seal on improving their trade ties on December 28 when they signed three agreements on economic, scientific and technical cooperation. They were signed by visiting First Deputy Premier Ivan Arkhipov who is the highest-ranking Kremlin leader to have visited Peking in fifteen years, and China's Vice-Premier Yao Yilin. The signing came at the end of Mr. Arkhipov's nine-day trip to help thaw the two nations' frosty relations. The Soviet Deputy Premier's visit concentrated on developing Sino-Soviet contacts. The Soviet Union needs food for Siberia while China wants Soviet technical help to upgrade her factories built by the Soviet experts during the years of friendship in the 1950s. The technical and economic cooperation agreement stipulated that both countries would study and exchange production technologies besides providing each other with technical services and training of each other's technical personnel. At present the Soviet Union is far behind the U.S., Western Europe and Japan in terms of trade with the lucrative Chinese market.