"Facts have demonstrated that China and Russia are good neighbors, good partners and good friends," he said.

Jiang made the remarks at Beijing University while attending a speech given by visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Jiang said China and Russia formed a strategic, cooperative partnership six years ago. He said the two countries have continued to strengthen mutual political trust, to expand cooperation in all fields, to further consolidate the traditional friendship between the two peoples and to strengthen cooperation and mutual support with regard to international affairs.

He said the development of the strategic, cooperative partnership forged between China and Russia is in conformity with the common aspirations of both peoples and in the common interest of the two countries. It is also conducive to maintaining world peace and stability and to promoting common development and progress in all countries.

Jiang and Putin signed the China-Russia good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation last July. The treaty requires that China and Russia make a long-term commitment to the development of a good-neighborly friendship and to mutually beneficial cooperation, and that the two peoples should be friends forever and never become enemies.

Jiang said the friendly cooperation between the two countries has continued to advance in practical terms in accordance with the spirit of this treaty.

China-Russia cooperation enjoys great potential for further development, according to Jiang.

As both China and Russia are in the new stage of development, their bilateral cooperation of mutual interests enjoys broad room for further development, Jiang said.

"Good neighbors are better than distant relatives," Jiang quoted Chinese and Russian adages as saying. Chinese people always advocate the thinking of "regarding neighbors as good partners," he said.

In accordance with trends of the times, the two countries should grasp historical opportunities to develop China-Russia cooperation in an all-round way and make joint efforts for a better future of bilateral relations, he said.

The friendship Between China and Russia and among all peoples worldwide eventually depends on young generation for its continuation and development, Jiang said.

Jiang described Putin's choice to make a speech in Beijing University as indicating he has strategic perspective as a statesman.

"The future of China, the future of Russia, and the future of the world all belong to young generation," Jiang said.

(China Daily December 3, 2002)