Two-day conference on Russia-China relations opens in Beijing

In China's capital, a two-day conference on the problems of Russian-Chinese relations has opened at the Institute of Contemporary International Relations affiliated to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Its participants are Chinese and Russian scholars, political scientists, representatives of the foreign ministries, Chinese and Russian journalists, including those from the Russian Information Agency Novosti.

The conference was opened by Mikhail Titarenko, director of the Far Eastern Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Sun Minjiang, head of the Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

The conferees focus on concrete Russian-Chinese problems, with due account for the 60th congress of the Chinese Communist Party due to open on Friday, upcoming change of generations in the country's leadership, as well as on the threshold of a state visit by Russia's President Vladimir Putin to the People's Republic of China Sun Minjiang stressed that "deep-going changes are happening in the contemporary world, the uncertainty factor is increasing, earlier non-traditional factors which affect security are coming to the fore". "In these conditions, the importance of China-Russia relations noticeably grows," he emphasized.

Mikhail Titarenko noted that the relations between Russia and China "present an ideal model of contemporary international relations". "They are not a union spearheaded against third countries but aimed at resolving current problems in the world." Titarenko also stressed that "such is the position of Russia and China, as well as India, which gives them much backing".

Only on Wednesday, a trilateral Russian-Chinese-Indian conference of political scientists was over in Beijing. They discussed security problems of Asia and ways of developing the trilateral dialogue. It has been a second trilateral meeting of the kind. The first was held in Moscow in 2001.

The decision has been taken that another such get-together will be held in Delhi, and under consideration will be not only problems of trilateral relations but also of the entire situation in South and Central Asia.