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Putin Highly Comments on "Shanghai Five" Mechanism
Putin Interviewed by Chinese Media
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the "Shanghai Five" mechanism has created a favorable atmosphere for developing relations among its member states and laid a foundation for their cooperation in all fields.
Since its founding five years ago, the "Shanghai Five" has adopted two main fundamental documents -- the Agreement on Confidence-Building in the Military Sphere in the Border Areas and the Agreement on Mutual Reduction of Military Forces in Border Areas, Putin told Xinhua prior to his trip to Shanghai for the sixth "Shanghai Five" summit on Friday.
The countries have taken measures to further boost mutual confidence in the border areas and those measures have laid a foundation for their cooperation in other fields, Putin said.
The "Shanghai Five" groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.
To safeguard security in the region, the president called on the five nations to work jointly in cracking down on religious extremism, terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking and weapon smuggling.
He also urged them to expand cooperation in the fields of humanities, education, science and technology, culture and economy.
Having laid a foundation for full-swing cooperation between its members, the "Shanghai Five" mechanism has won great interest of other countries in the region to further develop cooperation with it, said the president.
Putin said the upcoming five-country summit to be held Friday in Shanghai will discuss Uzbekistan's accession to this organization.
Putin highly commented on the current Russia-China relations as well as the important role Chinese President Jiang Zemin has played in pushing forward such good-neighborly and friendly relations.
He said both Russia and China are making preparations for Jiang 's upcoming state visit to Russia in mid July, which is considered the most important event in Russia-China relations this year.
Putin said Russia and China have many common interests in safeguarding global security and creating a multipolar world. He promised more efforts in coordinating the two countries' stands in international affairs.
He also stressed the importance of economic cooperation between Russia and China, highlighting the bright prospects and great potentials for cooperation in energy, high technology and space.
Commenting on the treaty on good-neighborly and friendly cooperation between Russia and China to be signed soon by the two countries' top leaders, Putin said the new treaty, designed for the new century, will serve as important guidelines for bilateral relations in a rather long period.
Talking about Russia's domestic situation, Putin said the country has achieved political stability and economic development in the past year. Those achievements, he said, are the result of the unity of Russian society, which brings the country the highest economic growth rate in the past 30 years.
Most Russian citizens have realized that their country should implement modernization and accelerate economic development to meet the demands of the 21st century, Putin said.
China has had speedy economic growth for many years and Russia' s top task is to make greatest efforts to sustain its development rate, he added.
Asked about Russia's future development, Putin said Russia will go toward a modernized democratic country with a flourishing economy and perfect social security system.
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