Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, signed a joint statement on Tuesday, pledging to further strengthen the two nations' strategic partnership of cooperation and contribute to the interests of the two peoples and security and stability in the region.

Chinese and Russian officials also signed an agreement on marine cooperation and a general agreement on buyer's export credit between Russia's Bank for Foreign Trade and China Construction Bank.

Hu and Putin told reporters after the signing ceremony that they will work together to inherit the past and usher in the future, so as to enter a new era of bilateral ties based on the good-neighborly cooperation between China and Russia.

In the morning, President Hu paid a visit to the Great Patriotic War Memorial Complex in Moscow.

(Xinhua News Agency May 28, 2003)