Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan confirmed that Acting president Vladimir Putin will visit China this year.

Tang said he visited Russia not long ago and held a lengthy talk with Russia Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, adding that "our talks were sincere and effective."

"We also exchanged views on international situation, major international issues and regional issues of mutual concern," he said.

Moreover, he noted, "Our talks also dealt with pushing ahead the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation and promoting cooperation in more fields."

Tang added that during his visit he also had a one-hour talk with Acting President Putin and the two sides believed that the international situation must be multi-polarized. And Russia expressed its strong opposition to the uni-polar, and held that only multi-polarization would benefit world peace and development, Tang said.