Chinese president pledges to deepen strategic partnership of coordination with Russia

MOSCOW, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping, currently on a state visit to Russia as part of his first overseas tour since taking office last week, has pledged on various occasions to deepen China's comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination with Russia.

Xi, who arrived in Moscow on Friday, has met with Russian president, prime minister and other high-level officials, attended the inauguration ceremony of the Year of Chinese Tourism, delivered a speech at a Moscow university and toured the Defense Ministry among other activities.

A SIGNIFICANT BILATERAL RELATIONSHIP

During talks with President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday, Xi stressed that China and Russia are each other's major and most important strategic cooperative partners, and both accord priority to deepening their comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in their overall diplomatic agenda and foreign policy.

When meeting with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday, the Chinese leader said that in recent years, the China-Russia relationship has withstood the tests of changing international circumstances and made substantial progress.

He added that there is a greater need now for the two nations to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination as the world has seen continuous profound changes.

Speaking to an audience at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Saturday, Xi said Russia and China, as each other's biggest neighbors, have a lot in common on national development.

He said the China-Russia relationship is the most important one in the world and also the best one between major powers, noting that a high-level and strong China-Russia relationship is not only in the interests of both countries, but also serves as an important guarantee of international strategic balance and world peace and stability.

PROPOSALS ON DEVELOPING TIES

The Chinese leader put forward several proposals on developing China-Russia ties in the face of the profoundly complex international situation and the still grave global economic environment.

During talks with Putin, he proposed China and Russia should deepen mutual political support, expand practical cooperation, translate the advantage of their high-level political ties into tangible results and thus achieve common development.

Beijing and Moscow should strengthen coordination and cooperation on global and regional issues so as to safeguard the two countries' common strategic security, he added.

At the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Xi raised a three-point proposal on developing bilateral ties.

The two countries should be firmly committed to developing a future-oriented relationship, a relationship of win-win cooperation and the friendship between the two peoples, Xi said.

ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Xi and Russian officials also had in-depth discussions on bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Both Xi and Putin agreed that the time and conditions are ripe for the two sides to carry out large-scale economic cooperation.

They vowed to make full use of their various cooperation mechanisms, and invigorate collaboration on large joint projects of strategic significance.

The two leaders also pledged to further improve the structure of bilateral trade and strive to achieve in advance the goal of bringing bilateral trade to 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2015.

When meeting with Medvedev, Xi urged the two nations to strengthen coordination in accelerating the implementation of cooperation agreements in oil, natural gas, as well as nuclear and coal power, and do a good job in making plans for cooperation in high-technology, aerospace, and cross-border infrastructure.

He called on the two sides to expand mutual investment, focus on a number of strategic big projects, and promote joint research, development and production.

The Chinese leader, who has chosen Russia as the first leg of his maiden foreign trip since assuming presidency, also vowed to boost cooperation with the country in such areas as military, tourism, youth, education, medicine and major global and regional affairs.

He also pledged to advance their inter-parliamentary relations and step up cooperation and exchanges at local levels.