Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Xu Zhongtian, president of the People's Daily and president of the China Newspaper Association, at the Kremlin on May 30, and accepted the exclusive interview given by People's Daily. Putin emphasized that under the current new international situation, Russia and China should strengthen bilateral cooperation.
Putin said: we should celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the "Russia-China Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation", which was signed at the proposal made by Chinese President Jiang Zemin, our good friend and cooperative partner, and has deepened and re-set the strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.
The question presently facing us is the need to enrich the practical connotations of our bilateral cooperation and our cooperative partnership, particularly under the new situation, we should intensify our bilateral cooperative efforts.
Speaking about Russia's recent foreign activities, Putin said Russia, of course, also pays attention to its relations with the European Union (EU) and the United States, but this does not mean that we would neglect Russia-China relationship. We place great importance on Russia-China cooperative relationship and take the development of this relationship as the primary task.
The "Russia-China Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation" we signed a year ago, in particular, indicates that the nature of Russia-China cooperation stands above Russia-US relationship in various aspects. We should say Russia is an European-Asian country having cooperation with both the East and the West, in the future we will continue to develop ties with the West and the East, particularly Russia-China relationship.
Putin said he thanked Chinese President Jiang Zemin for his acceptance of invitation to come to Russia very soon to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit.
During the interview, Putin also referred to the question of speeding up the pace of development he mentioned in his State of the Union Message. He disclosed that over the past few years, Russia's national economy has experienced a very fast rate of growth, which is expected to reach 5-6 percent this year, of course, we hope it to be even faster. In order to ensure a more rapid development, we need to carry out mechanism reform. Under the present market economy conditions, we should reduce irrational government interference in the economy and perfect the judicial system.
President Xu Zhongtian and his party visit Russia at the invitation of Russian News Agency.
(People's Daily May 31, 2002)
