During his state visit to Russia between July 15 and 18, 2001, Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed a joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 16. The statement says that the China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, signed by heads of state of the two countries the same day, is an important milestone in the history of Sino-Russian relations and the symbol of a new stage of bilateral ties. A programmatic document to guide the development of Sino-Russian relations in the new century, the treaty summarizes the main principles, spirit and achievements of bilateral ties, and legalizes the willingness of the two countries and two peoples to "be friendly to each other from generation to generation and never make each other enemies." The treaty affirms that the friendship between the two nations is based on a new state-to-state relationship that features non-alignment and non-confrontation and is not directed against a third country. Chinese and Russian leaders firmly believe that bilateral ties, with the treaty as a solid foundation, will be upgraded during this century.

While attending the sixth regular meeting between prime ministers of China and Russia on September 11, 2001, Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with Russian President Putin. Zhu said the treaty signed by Jiang and Putin laid a foundation for the success of the prime ministers meeting. He noted that to materialize the spirit and principles of the treaty, the two sides signed a series of agreements during the meeting, including agreements on an oil pipeline project and purchase of Russian-made planes. This will greatly promote bilateral trade and economic cooperation, which may lead to economic results worth of tens of billions of U.S. dollars. Zhu also brought about concrete proposals, such as establishing a China trade center in Moscow, Russia dispatching entrepreneurs to visit China each year, and enhancing direct trade between large and medium-sized Chinese and Russian corporations. All these efforts are aimed at increasing Russia's imports from China, so as to improve unbalanced Sino-Russian trade.

Putin said Russia is satisfied with the major achievements of the bilateral premier meeting. The agreements reached effectively fulfill the spirit and principles of the China-Russia Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation. He agreed with Zhu's proposals, and emphasized that the Russian Government attaches great importance to these agreements and will urge relevant departments to fulfill them. He said Russia would make efforts to adopt active measures to introduce more Chinese products onto the Russian market, to improve the bilateral trade imbalance.

Putin expressed satisfaction at the two countries¡¯ coordination and cooperation in international affairs, especially their cooperation in maintaining and abiding by the AMB Treaty. He hoped both sides keep in touch, strengthen coordination and cooperation, and jointly safeguard international security and strategic stability.

Zhu pointed out that the AMB issue is currently a focus of concern of international community and has a direct bearing on the two nations¡¯ strategic security interests. He said China is willing to continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Russia.

China and Russia made substantial achievements in economic cooperation in 2001. Incomplete statistics show that the volume of bilateral trade in 2001 soared by 33.3 percent over 2000.

The next regular meeting between Chinese and Russian premiers will be held in Shanghai in 2002. The two sides will further discuss matters on joint promotion of rapid development of Sino-Russian economic cooperation.