MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed it is important that Russia and China have no territorial claims against each other and that this recognition rests upon a firm legal basis.

In a video conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Monday, Putin said that the Russian-Chinese Treaty of Good-Neighborliness, Friendship, and Cooperation, signed 20 years ago, largely determined the current condition of bilateral relations. 

"It is important that it stated the absence of mutual territorial claims and the two countries' determination to turn the common border into a belt of eternal peace and friendship. We have done a great deal for this, including the work on the border. We have worked on this for years. We and our teams have achieved the desired result, suitable for China and for Russia," Putin said.

The treaty of friendship, he emphasized, incorporated old-time historical traditions of neighborliness between the people of the two countries.

"Enshrined in this document are such fundamental agreements as mutual support in the protection of state unity and territorial integrity, the pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons and not to target strategic missiles against each other - such agreements are greatly significant in the modern world - and respect for the sovereign right to choose a social system and way of development, and non-interference in the internal affairs," Putin said.

Putin said he was very glad to see and talk to his Chinese counterpart.

"The no easy coronavirus situation does not allow us to meet personally, but we keep working - our colleagues and you and me - and keep in touch," Putin said.

Russia-China Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation

The treaty was concluded on July 16, 2001, following talks between President Vladimir Putin and the then Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. In the treaty, the two sides declared the intention to build relations on the basis of equal strategic partnership in accordance with the universally recognized norms of international law and the principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality, mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.

Russia and China reaffirmed the pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons against each other and not to target strategic nuclear missiles against each other. Should either country be faced with a threat, Russia and China will promptly contact each other for consultations.

The signatories came out for the further development of political, trading, economic, military-technical, and humanitarian cooperation and struggle against terrorism, separatism, extremism, and organized crime.