Replies to post #4591 on Foreign Correspondence

[StephanieVanbryce]

Sino-Russian relations at new stage of development--Hu Jintao

30.06.2005, 12.27

MOSCOW, June 30 (Itar-Tass) - The Sino-Russian relations “are embarking on a new stage of all-round development”, Chinese President Hu Jintao told Itar-Tass and the First Channel of the Russian Television on the eve of his visit to Russia.

“The mechanisms of mutual relations are now being perfected, mutual trust is growing, and our commercial, economic, scientific and technological cooperation is expanding dynamically,” he noted.

Touching on Sino-Russian cooperation on the international arena, the Chinese president said both sides were “not only backing each other on problems of state sovereignty and territorial integrity, but are also fruitfully interacting on global and regional problems”.

“It took us ten years to build up relations of partnership and strategic interaction between the two countries,” Hu Jintao stated. “Increasingly active cooperation between our two countries is being witnessed this year,” he explained. Firstly, Hu Jintao noted, “the sides have ratified the Additional Agreement on the Eastern Sector of the Sino-Russian State Border, which settles all the border problems once and for all”.

“A mechanism for Inter-state consultations on security problems was created and set going,” the Chinese president recalled.

“Whereas trade turnover between China and Russia had reached a record high of twenty billion U.S. dollars in 2004, it already amounted to 7.8 billion dollars in the period from January to April 2005, an increment of 25.9 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year,” Hu Jintao divulged.

Moreover, he noted, the sides have achieved unanimity on such problems as “he construction of an oil pipeline between China and Russia, the tapping of an oil and gas deposit, and on petroleum deliveries.”

The full text of President Hu Jintao’s interview is published in the newspaper “Izvestia” and will be broadcast in a special issue of the “Formula of Power” program of the First Channel of the Russian Television.

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=2186857&PageNum=0