Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin: Dear President Hu Jintao, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am truly glad to receive again our friend, the President of the People’s Republic of China Hu Jintao, in Moscow.

The annual meetings at high political level play an exclusively important role in the development of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership, and the direct regular dialogue at high level significantly enriches our international relations.

The results of the latest Moscow summit are the best confirmation of this.

Today we held detailed talks on a wide range of bilateral problems, and also regional and global international issues.

I would like to note the passing of the Joint Declaration about international order in the 21st century, which we just signed. This declaration reflects the consonant approaches of Russia and China to the fundamental issues of international politics. We well understand how important good-neighbourly, partnership relations between Russia and China are both for our people and for the entire world. We will continue our cooperation both at bilateral level and on a multilateral basis. Soon we will continue our consultations at the forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Astana.

In the spirit of acceptable compromises and mutual respect, we solve problems between our countries that are left over from the past. The mechanisms and forms of cooperation are constantly being improved, and we set ourselves large-scale tasks for the future. Our parliaments have ratified an agreement about the border. Turning over this page of our common history, we will be able to concentrate our work on even more specific issues of promising projects and tasks.

Undoubtedly, one of the priorities is the development of trade, investment, industrial and cooperation ties.

China is traditionally one of Russia’s most important economic partners in the world in general and in Asia in particular. Last year trade turnover between our countries increased by a third and reached $21 billion. In the first five months of the year, this trend has been fully maintained.

Our countries have all the capabilities to continue economic interaction, and we intend to do this in future. There are promising projects in such industries as energy, metallurgy, modernisation of the transport infrastructure, ties between banks and joint research in the space industry. Wide possibilities also open up in interregional cooperation. We intend to develop military and technical ties and cooperation between military organisations of our countries, and are preparing to hold the first major joint military exercises at the end of summer this year.

It is pleasing that from year to year our cultural and humanitarian ties are widening. This does not just concern specific individual events, but also large-scale projects. The days of Chinese culture were held successfully in our country last year. Today Mr President and I agreed that 2006 would be declared the Year of Russia in China, and 2007 the Year of China in the Russian Federation.

In conclusion I would like to stress once more that our efforts are directed to increasing the quality of Russian-Chinese cooperation. We are certain that this fully corresponds to the aspirations of our two nations to develop relations with each other.

I would like to thank our Chinese partners for the very constructive and interested attitude towards all the issues discussed.

I would like to thank President Hu Jintao for his well-disposed approach to solving all the problems which we discussed today.

Thank you.

Hu Jintao (translated from Russian): Dear friends, press representatives, ladies and gentlemen,

I am very pleased to meet with you.

President Putin and I have just held thorough talks, and exchanged opinions in detail on bilateral relations, on important international and regional problems, and have reached a common understanding on a wide range of issues discussed. We signed a Joint Declaration between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation about international order in the 21st century. This document reflects our common position on important problems of international life, and shows the firm resolve of our two countries to uphold peace, stability and prosperity all over the world. The Joint Declaration is very important for deepening strategic cooperation between our two countries on the international stage and will assist in the healthy development of the international situation.

Both sides agree that in recent years Chinese-Russian partner relations of strategic cooperation have been steadily advancing and have reached a high level unprecedented for their entire history. Both sides have ratified an additional agreement on the Chinese-Russian state border, in its eastern section, so border issues have been definitely resolved legally. A mechanism of consultations on issues of state security between China and Russia has been launched, opening new channels of strategic dialogue at high level. The sides have increased mutual support on such key issues as that of Taiwan and Chechnya, which affect vital interests. Our trade and economic cooperation is constantly expanding and intensifying, and our cooperation in the energy and investment spheres is developing productively.

We have passed a decision to increase coordination and interaction on important international and regional issues such as ensuring stability in the Central Asian region, cooperation in the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, reform to the UN, and the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula. In this way we are upholding the common interests of our two countries.

We are satisfied with the success achieved in bilateral relations in recent years.

During the talks, President Putin and I stressed the necessity of further strengthening of political mutual trust, expansion of pragmatic cooperation between our countries in the trade and economic, energy, investment, scientific and technical, educational, cultural and military spheres, and also the necessity of developing coordination and interaction in international affairs, and enriching and giving new substance to partner relations and strategic interaction between China and Russia.

A series of documents has just been signed on cooperation between our countries in the sphere of electrical energy, oil and finances.

The parties have also agreed on holding the year of Russia in China in 2006, and the Year of China in Russia in 2007.

Tomorrow I will visit Novosibirsk. I will have a meeting with the heads of the Siberian Federal District, where together we will look for channels and paths for further development of our mutually beneficial interregional cooperation.

I am certain that with our joint efforts, Chinese-Russian partnership and strategic interaction will certainly be brought to an even higher level in the interests of our nations.

During our talks I invited President Putin to visit our country next year. Mr Putin accepted my invitation with pleasure.

In conclusion, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr President and the Russian Government for giving us a such a warm reception.