Russian and Chinese Presidents to Meet in MayChinese President Jiang Zemin and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in the second half of May in Tajikistan, according to Itar-Tass news agency report on April 12.Tass quoted a high-ranking source in the Russian foreign ministry as saying Jiang and Putin would meet in the Tajik capital Dushanbe on the sidelines of the annual Shanghai Five group summit. The Shanghai Five, named after the venue of the group's first meeting, also include the ex-Soviet Central Asian states of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The talks will be the first between the leaders of Russia and China since Putin took office after President Boris Yeltsin's New Year Eve resignation. Putin, who won election last month, will be inaugurated as the Russian president on May 7. Moscow and Bejing have kept close ties with a proclaimed view of building a strategic partnership to counterbalance US domination in the world arena. The Foreign Ministry could not immediately confirm the meeting. |
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