MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The development of relations between Moscow and China is independent from foreign influence, according to the joint statement signed by Russian and Chinese Presidents, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, after their talks in Moscow on Tuesday.

"The sides stress that efforts toward strengthening and deepening Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation entering a new era are a strategic choice independent from external influence," the document reads.

According to the declaration, this choice is rooted in Russia’s and China’s national specifics and their bilateral relations meet the core interests of the two states and their peoples and are in line with the modern-day trends of development. These relations are independent from external factors, it emphasized.