Chinese President Hu Jintao's special envoy, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday and delivered him a verbal message from Hu which stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

 

China and Russia should cooperate to appropriately respond to the nuclear test of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and work together to ease the situation, Hu said in the message to Putin.

 

At a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Tang said the strategic partnership between China and Russia has been developing rapidly.

 

Mutual political trust is deepening, the practical cooperation has seen marked results and the two countries have maintained close contact and coordination on major international and regional issues, Tang said.

 

Putin thanked Hu for his message and said that the strategic partnership between the two countries has gone beyond bilateral and cooperation in the political, security, economic, cultural and other fields is continuously developing.

 

On the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Tang said China and Russia share the same position on the DPRK's nuclear test.

 

Both sides maintain that the Korean Peninsula should be denuclearized and the nuclear non-proliferation regime needs to be safeguarded and that the UN Security Council should come up with a "necessary and appropriate" response to make room for diplomacy to work, Tang said.

 

The two sides also call for the peaceful resolution to the issue through dialogue and negotiations, urge all the parties concerned to stop moves that could deteriorate the situation, and to work for an early resumption of the six-party talks, he said.

 

The Chinese envoy said China and Russia should strengthen strategic coordination and work jointly to move the situation toward taking a turn for the better as the situation in the Korean Peninsula is closely related to the peace and stability of Northeast Asia, which is in the common interests of both China and Russia.

 

Putin said China and Russia share common interests in maintaining peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia at large.

 

He stressed the need for closer coordination to prevent the situation from deteriorating and to maintain regional peace and stability.

 

Earlier, Tang held separate talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

 

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2006)