Book of Putin's speeches presented in Beijing

On Friday, the book "Selected speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin" in Chinese was presented in Beijing. The book with a volume of almost 600,000 hieroglyphs contains the most important speeches and interviews by Vladimir Putin from December 30, 1999 to October 2002. They were translated, edited and published by the Academy of Social Sciences of the Chinese People's Republic.

The first copy of the book (with a preface by Chairman Jiang Zemin) was handed to Vladimir Putin during his official visit to China early this December.

Jiang Zemin's one-volume book "On Socialism with Chinese Specifics" in Russian was simultaneously published in Moscow.

Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Liu Guchang said during the presentation that the publication of Putin's speeches and interviews is "a major event in our countries' relations".

According to Liu Guchang, this book contains a lot of profound ideas about Russo-Chinese relations, crucial for further development of relations and deepening contacts between China and Russia. "Russia, as our close neighbour and partner will further occupy an important place in our foreign policy," Chinese Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs said.