Russian Premier Mikhail Kasyanov said Friday in Moscow that the Russian-Chinese relations have become an important factor for the stability of the world.
The Russian premier made the statement in his meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, in which the two sides discussed the bilateral relations and cooperation in economy and trade.
During the meeting, Kasyanov said that to establish strategic cooperative partnership between Russia and China is a political decision of the top leaders of the two countries and has gained endorsement from the two peoples.
Russia highly treasures its relations with China and is satisfied with the development of the bilateral ties, he said.
Kasyanov said the high-level contacts between the two countries are very frequent; such contacts will be culminated by the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to China later this year for his talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
Kasyanov said that the economic and trade cooperation between Russia and China develops rapidly, and China is one of the most important trade partners of Russia.
He said the seventh regular meeting between the Russian and Chinese premiers to be held this year will further push forward the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.
In return, Tang, who is here to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members, expressed his belief that the meeting between the two premiers will be of great significance to further developing the two countries' economic potentials of mutual supplement, and promoting the bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
The Chinese minister said the strategic cooperative partnership between Russia and China is gaining a good momentum, it fully mirrors that the political mutual trust between the two countries has developed to a new and higher level.
To further consolidate and develop the strategic cooperative partnership and develop friendly and mutual-beneficial cooperation is not only in keeping with the fundamental interests of the two countries, but also is conducive to peace and development of the region and the world, Tang said.
(People's Daily April 28, 2002)
