In an interview with the NTV television network, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that for the first time in history his country now has a fully delimited border with China, adding that this achievement had become possible once their relations had reached "a level of strategic partnership."

He and Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing signed the Supplementary Agreement on the Eastern Section of the China-Russia Boundary Line in Beijing last month.

Lavrov said the agreement "helped to remove serious irritants in bilateral relations."

Apart from settling territorial problems, Russia and China have also "achieved important understandings on military, energy and migration questions," the minister said.

(Xinhua News Agency, CRI.com November 15, 2004)