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President Vladimir Putin : Dear Mr Hu Jintao!

Ladies and gentlemen!

I am truly pleased to welcome our distinguished guest and friend, President of China Hu Jintao, and a large Chinese delegation to Moscow. This visit is still further evidence of the intensive development of bilateral contacts between our countries.

We met six times last year. I think that this tradition only serves to strengthen trust and business cooperation between Russia and China.

Today's talks once again confirmed that the Russian-Chinese partnership is a strategic one. Our political dialogue is developing at speed. Our cooperation in business, cultural, and educational spheres is progressing at a new rate. Our cooperation in regional and international affairs has significantly increased.

We praised the Year of Russia in China that is just coming to an end. In general, we feel that it clearly demonstrated the huge potential for bilateral cooperation between our countries' peoples.

I would like to thank the President of China, Hu Jintao, Mrs Wu Yi and all our Chinese colleagues once again for their help in organising and carrying out the Year of Russia in China. The Year of China is Russia is designed to continue our tradition of friendship and cooperation.

Its programme contains many remarkable and memorable events. A Chinese National Exhibition will open tomorrow in Moscow. And the day after tomorrow, an exhibition from Beijing’s imperial palace entitled The Forbidden City – Treasures of the Chinese Emperors will open.

Around 200 events will take place as part of the Year of China. And their geographical location will vary exceedingly – from St Petersburg to Vladivostok.

This year we intend to continue our policy designed to strengthen our joint projects and develop our partnership in all areas. Today we discussed the concrete ways to develop our cooperation in detail. They are reflected in the Joint Declaration we signed following the meeting.

Trade, economic and investment cooperation remains a priority for us. We are satisfied with the positive trends in these areas. According to our data, in 2006 our trade almost reached the 29 billion dollar mark and China estimates that our trade is more than 33 billion dollars. This is a good start towards achieving our goal, namely reaching a volume of trade of more than 60 billion dollars by 2010.

Today we also discussed implementing major projects in construction, wood processing and transport infrastructure, as well as cooperation in the high-tech sector, outer space, energy – including nuclear energy – and aviation.

We will continue our cooperation in the military and technical spheres.

We welcome increased cooperation in environmental issues.

Cooperation in the educational and cultural spheres is especially important for our peoples, peoples that have a rich creative potential. We intend to develop cooperation in science, culture, education, tourism and in youth exchanges.

Foreign policy issues constituted an important part of our talks. We agreed to continue actively cooperating within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This is important to address problems such as terrorist threats, transnational crime and illegal drug trafficking. We are convinced that by uniting our efforts we will be able to strengthen the security of Russia and China as well as stability in Central Asia, the whole Asian-Pacific region, and in the world as a whole.

In conclusion I would like to once again thank the President of China, Hu Jintao, and all our Chinese friends and partners for the constructive and intense discussion of all the issues on our agenda.

Thank you.

Chinese President Hu Jintao: Dear President Putin!

Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear friends!

I am pleased to be able to meet with you.

First and foremost I would like to use this opportunity to thank my good friend, President Putin, for his kind invitation to visit Russia and for the way both my delegation and myself were received.

As Mr President has already mentioned, we held very business-oriented negotiations in a warm and trusting atmosphere. We took stock of the important experiences we have gleaned during the development of our partnership and strategic cooperation over the past ten years. We expressed our satisfaction with the range of results our cooperation has achieved in all areas.

We had a detailed exchange of opinions on deepening our strategic cooperation and expanding our business cooperation in various spheres, as well as on topical international and regional problems.

Mr President and I reached important new agreements on all of the issues we discussed. Our talks have important results. We signed the Joint Declaration that confirms the firm intentions of both parties to be guided by the letter and the spirit of the Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation, to work towards establishing a sincere partnership and mutual trust in the political sphere, mutual benefits in the trade and economic spheres, joint innovations in the scientific and technical spheres, harmony and friendship in the cultural and educational spheres, unity and mutual assistance in security issues. And to do so in order to maintain the good dynamic within the healthy and steady development of Chinese-Russian partnership and strategic cooperation.

Mr President and I are of the same opinion with respect to the need to uncover and tap into new reserves of multifaceted cooperation in a way that will be mutually advantageous. We also need to increase both the amount and quality of our cooperation.

As we maintain the high growth rates in our trade we are going to adopt effective measures to optimise our trade structures and increase the share of high-tech and high value-added products, all with a view to expanding the technical and economic component of our bilateral cooperation.

Mr President and I also agreed to create a Chinese-Russian chamber of commerce to oversee the trade of machinery. And this chamber is designed to act as an effective base for promoting bilateral trade in this area.

Furthermore, we agreed to increase our cooperation in the energy, investment, scientific and technical fields and to introduce major joint projects in these branches in order to improve the overall level of our business cooperation.

We expressed our satisfaction with our cooperation in environmental issues and decided to improve cooperation designed to preserve water resources in border regions.

Both parties praised the success of the Year of Russia in China and noted that this type of event helps promote bilateral exchange and cooperation, as well as strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between our countries and peoples.

We will use the newly begun Year of China in Russia as a unique opportunity to develop the concept of a peace-loving centuries-long friendship between China and Russia and to give the development of Chinese-Russian partnership and strategic cooperation a new stimulus.

Mr President and I completely agree on the fact that increasing strategic cooperation between China and Russia – two permanent members of the UN Security Council – in international and regional affairs has a great deal of significance. It is important with respect to promoting a multipolar world, democratizing international relations, ensuring world peace, and promoting general development.

I would like to once again thank President Putin, the government cabinet and the people of Russia!

Thank you!