Friday, February 15, 2008

Putin says Russian-Chinese ties pole for world stability

By Xinhua News Agency

Posted by China Watcher

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russian-Chinese cooperation is an important pole in maintaining world stability.

"China is one of our strategic partners and links between China and Russia are important for the world stability," Putin said at his annual and maybe last press conference before he steps down after the March 2 presidential election.

Putin also hailed the strategic partnership of coordination and mutual trust between the two countries, saying increasing trade and economic cooperation boosted bilateral ties.

"The cooperation between China and Russia will reach new horizon in the future and will expand in fields such as trade and economy, science and technology, aviation and space research, and environmental protection," he said.

The marathon conference is attended by nearly 1,400 domestic and foreign journalists and expected to last for three hours.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

XINHUA NEWS AGENCY MOSCOW BUREAU, CHINA: How do you see future relations with China?

VLADIMIR PUTIN: China is one of our main strategic partners and this is something confirmed by our work together over the days and the hours. Our trade with China is growing very fast. This is an important aspect of our cooperation but it is not the most important factor. More important is that the relationship of trust between Russia and China is an important stabilising factor in the world. We see how the Chinese people and the Chinese leadership nurture and look after relations with Russia, and this is something we value very much. We have far-reaching plans for trade and investment cooperation and for developing high-technology production and working together in the space sector, defence and military-technical cooperation. China is one of our biggest partners in the area of military-technical cooperation. We see how rapidly China is developing its own high-technology base in this area. China is one of the few countries with whom we have established trusting cooperation for the long term, perhaps even decades ahead.

I have absolutely no doubt that we will maintain this level of trust between our two countries and take our cooperation to new heights, above all in the economy. One of the serious issues we need to work on together is that of environmental cooperation, including as regards the use of rivers in the border area. But we see that despite the difficulties, including technological difficulties, our Chinese partners are seeking solutions to these problems, respond swiftly to technological incidents and disasters, attempt to minimise the consequences and are ready to look for new forms of cooperation that would prevent such incidents in the future. No one is ever completely guaranteed against such events, of course, but working together on addressing environmental issues will be one of the most important areas for our two countries over the coming years. With the good will of both countries we can resolve these problems, and the good will is there in both China and Russia.