China highly appreciates Boris Yeltsin's ceaseless efforts to promote Sino-Russian relations during his tenure as Russian president, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in Beijing December 31.

When commenting on Yeltsin's resignation earlier today, Zhu said China believes that President Yeltsin's resignation is an internal affair of Russia.

Zhu added that as a friendly neighbor of Russia, "We sincerely hope that Russia will maintain stability and development."

Zhu said that during Yeltsin's tenure as Russian president, he made unremitting efforts to establish and promote Sino-Russian strategic and cooperative partnership, laying a good foundation for the further growth of bilateral relations in the years ahead.

"China highly appreciates this," Zhu said.

"We believe that through joint efforts, Sino-Russian relations will achieve even greater success in the new century," Zhu said. (Xinhua)