Russia’s Foreign Ministry plans to open a consulate general in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, Ambassador to Beijing Andrey Denisov said on Wednesday. “The city of Wuhan has been well-known to us for a long time. Before Wuhan, there was the city of Hankou. Our country was present in Hankou in the late 19th century, there was a consulate general,” the envoy told an online briefing.
“Now the Russian Foreign Ministry has decided to reopen the consulate general in Wuhan. We hope that when the budget allows, we will restore our presence in Wuhan,” TASS quoted Denisov as saying. “I am very pleased to see that life in the Hubei province and the city of Wuhan is returning to normal,” the diplomat added.
Moscow and Beijing agreed in September 2015 to open consulate generals in the Russian cities of Vladivostok and Kazan and the Chinese cities of Harbin and Wuhan. Russia has a consular department at the embassy in Beijing, as well as consulate generals in Guangzhou, Harbin, Shanghai, Shenyang and Hong Kong.
In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, coronavirus cases have been reported in other countries.