MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. Russia is convinced that the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation with China will be automatically extended for five years in 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Chinese mass media.

"This Treaty will turn 20 on February 28, 2022. It was signed on July 16, 2001 and was ratified on February 28, 2002. We are confident that when the treaty marks 20 years in February 2022, it will be automatically extended for another five year period in line with Article 25," he said.

According to the Russian top diplomat, the dynamic development of the Russian-Chinese relations in the past 20 years proves that "the treaty has withstood the test of time and the liabilities undertaken by the countries are being strictly implemented." "I would like to recall that these liabilities are to pass over friendship between our peoples to new generations. It is a unique legal formula I haven’t seen anywhere else but for relations between Russia and China," Lavrov stressed.

He recalled that the sides undertook to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, stated that they had no territorial claims to each other and expressed "their resolve to turn the border between Russia and China into a border of eternal peace and friendship." "It is a very unusual wording for official documents and it demonstrates that our relations have really unique nature," the minister added.

"This model of cooperation between Russia and China is absolutely free from any ideological limiters. It is free from any time-serving factors and is not aimed at any third country. The leaders of our countries have repeatedly stressed that," Lavrov added.

The Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation was signed by Russian and Chinese presidents, Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin, on July 16, 2001.