Russia's central bank opened its first overseas office in Beijing on Thursday to strengthen financial cooperation between the two countries.

Bank of Russia is the main regulator of the Russian banking industry, responsible for banking licenses, rules on banking operations and accounting standards.

"The office in China is the first for the Russian Federation's currency authority," said Dmitry Skobelkin, deputy governor of the Bank of Russia.

"The establishment of the new office, along with our cooperation with the People's Bank of China, demonstrates the development of our comprehensive strategic partnership."

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, signed an agreement with his Russian counterpart Elvira Nabiullina in June, allowing Bank of Russia to open its office in China.

Yi Gang, deputy governor of the PBOC, said economic cooperation has been strengthened more than ever, and bilateral trade reached $59.5 billion in 2016.

"Various financial agreements have been signed by the two governments in the past year, including cooperation between currency authorities and banks from both sides," he said.

Yi said that bilateral financial cooperation witnessed fast development last year, when the PBOC authorized the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to be the clearing bank for the renminbi and the rouble in September.

Andrei Denisov, the Russian ambassador to China, said: "The new office will help Russian banks to solve their problems about capital settlement and currency clearing in China, and increase the attraction of the Russian financial market to Chinese investors."

renqi@chinadaily.com.cn