Experts say Russia, China have solid foundation for developing ties

BEIJING, June 7 /TASS/. The 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, which the two counties signed 15 years ago, laid down a solid foundation for strengthening ties between the two countries, participants in a Sino-Russian conference said on Tuesday.

The Sino-Russian Strategic Interaction and Construction of New World Order" conference has been organized by the Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace and Development as well as a number of other organizations.

"Today, our political relations have reached a historically high level. We have managed to advance substantially in all areas of practical cooperation; our trade and economic ties have entered the trajectory of sustainable and progressive development. The mechanism of regular meetings of the heads of government set up in 1997 has been functioning successfully and is constantly being improved," Georgy Zinovyev, Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in China, said in his speech at the opening ceremony.

"The treaty has historical significance for our two countries. In a long-term perspective, the establishment of all-embracing strategic partnership between China and Russia plays a vital role in maintaining international peace, security and cooperation," the director of the East European, Russian and Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told TASS. He said that China and Russia had a new type of inter-state relations.

"Relations between Moscow and Beijing have been a significant factor in world politics for many years that has a serious impact on the contemporary international situation," Senior Lector of the High School of Economics Vladimir Zakharov, the former deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, told TASS. According to him, close interaction at regional and international organizations attaches special importance to the Russian-Chinese relations.