Leaders of Russia and China point to high degree of collaboration between the two countries on international scene

At their meeting on Thursday the leaders of Russia and China pointed to the high degree of collaboration between the two countries on the international scene, which is very important for the global stability.

Deputy presidential chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko said this to journalists when summing up the results of the meeting between president of Russia Vladimir Putin and chairman of China Jiang Zemin in St. Petersburg.

Prikhodko called their talk as thorough and benevolent. According to him, at the beginning of the meeting the leaders of the two countries discussed the results of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). They pointed out that this summit was of great importance and proved that it is a "good mechanism" for the development of cooperation and prevention of conflicts in the region, Prikhodko stressed.

He also said that Vladimir Putin informed Jiang Zemin in detail of the results of the US president's visit to Russia, the Rome Russia-NATO summit and the Moscow Russia-European Union summit.

Prikhodko emphasised that the leaders of Russia and China positively assessed the expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. They pointed out that despite the growth of trade turnover and the launch of major bilateral cooperation projects, "a number of steps should be taken for more dynamic development of economic collaboration." Vladimir Putin and Jiang Zemin positively assessed the results of the session of the Russian-Chinese commission on military-technical cooperation recently held in Beijing, Prikhodko said.