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Chinese, Russian Presidents Issue Joint Statement
Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a joint statement here on Monday, calling for closer bilateral cooperation in all fields and describing the Sino-Russian good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation as the foundation of the cooperation.
The following are details of the joint statement:
The Sino-Russian good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation, signed on July 16, 2001, is an important landmark in the history of the development of bilateral ties, which indicates that the relations between the two countries have entered a new stage.
As a guideline document on the Sino-Russian relations in the new century, the treaty summarizes the main principles, essence and achievements in the development of the Sino-Russian ties, and fixes into a legal form the concept of the two countries and peoples of boosting friendship from generation to generation and never targeting each other as enemies. The treaty confirms that the friendly ties between the two countries are new-type interstate relations, built on the basis of non-alignment, non- confrontation and not targeting at any third country.
The two presidents reaffirmed that the exchange of high-level visits and the mechanism of regular meetings between the two countries will be maintained, for the two sides to exchange views on key bilateral and international issues. The foreign, defense, judicial, economic and scientific departments of the two countries will strengthen coordination and boost cooperation. The two sides will expand exchanges and cooperation in the fields of education, culture, health and sports, to help consolidate and fortify the social base for the good-neighborliness, friendship and mutual trust between the two countries.
The two heads of state agreed that the implementation of the agreements in the economy and trade, science and technology and other fields will steadily strengthen the material base of the Sino-Russian strategic cooperative partnership based on equality and mutual trust.
To raise the level of cooperation, the two countries will actively push forward their cooperation in such fields as oil and gas, nuclear energy, machinery, telecommunications, information, space and environment.
They expressed the wish to make joint efforts to create favorable conditions for economic and trade cooperation, improve the banking system of mutual settlement of accounts, improve the financing service, and to improve the efficiency of Sino-Russian business arbitration systems.
The Chinese and Russian presidents attach great importance to the sixth meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries, to be held in September 2001, which will give a new impetus to the development of the Sino-Russian long-term economic cooperation.
The two presidents pointed out that they will continue their efforts to make the Sino-Russian border an area of good- neighborliness, friendship, lasting peace, trust and mutually beneficial cooperation.
China and Russia are willing, in a constructive and pragmatic spirit, to speed up their efforts to work out mutually acceptable solutions to the sections of their boundary on which they have not reached consensus in consultations.
The two leaders pointed out that the implementation of the agreement signed by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in April 1996 on the build-up of confidence in the military field in border areas and their agreement on mutual reduction of military forces in border areas in April 1997 will be conducive to the peace, tranquillity and stability in the border areas, and to the promotion of the good-neighborliness among the five countries.
The establishment of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last month and Uzbekistan's participation as a co-founder is a major measure designed to consolidate peace and stability in Central Asia and the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, and to develop good- neighborliness and relations of trust and cooperation in the region.
The two heads of state pointed out that national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity are the core of international law and the fundamental principles governing international relations, which are the prerequisites to the existence of every country. It is the legitimate right of any country to resolutely fight back against attempts and acts that violate the above-mentioned principles.
China and Russia give firm support to each other's policies and actions taken to safeguard national unity and territorial integrity.
The increasingly rampant terrorism, separatism and extremism have posed a serious threat to the security of sovereign states and global peace and stability. China and Russia are determined to adopt pertinent and concrete measures and seek bilateral or multilateral cooperation in this regard.
The two leaders believed that the promotion of a multi-polar world will help establish a fair and just new international order of stability, democracy and non-confrontation.
But the effort to build a fair and just new world order is faced with a series of challenges. The two countries will make joint efforts to strengthen the leading role of the United Nations and its Security Council in international affairs, opposing the use of the arguments of "humanitarian intervention" and "limited sovereignty" in attempts to sabotage the basic norms of international law.
The two presidents pointed out that bringing the United Nations ' potentials into full play is of particular importance to a more fair distribution of the benefits brought about by economic globalization and world economic growth, the narrowing of an ever- widening South-North gap, and a guaranteed equal access for all countries to advanced information and telecommunication technology.
The two leaders said that solutions to issues like those in the Middle East, Iraq, Kosovo and Afghanistan can only be found through peaceful negotiations, which are in conformity with the interests of all sides concerned.
China and Russia hold consistent positions on issues of strengthening global and regional strategic stability, maintaining treaties on arms control and disarmament, preventing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and means of delivery and proliferation of arms to the outer space.
The two leaders reiterated their position declared in the joint statement on the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) issue signed by both sides in Beijing on July 18, 2000 and described the ABM treaty as the cornerstone of strategic stability and the basis for the reduction of offensive strategic weaponry.
The international community must redouble their efforts to prevent the proliferation of missiles and missile technologies and further explore the possibility of establishing a global system on the prevention of missile proliferation with the participation of all countries concerned.
They expressed their strong opposition to the deployment of weapons to the outer space, stressing the need to conclude an international law on banning the deployment.
China and Russia will abide by the final document adopted by the 2000 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and will strengthen cooperation on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.
The two leaders called for restarting talks on disarmament, including an early start of talks on a treaty prohibiting the production of nuclear weapons and the use of fission materials for nuclear explosion devices.
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