Towards occasion of anniversary of Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation between Russia, China

On July 16, 2001, during the visit to Russia by PRC Chairman Jiang Zemin, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the PRC Chairman signed in the Kremlin a new Russian-Chinese Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation.

This Treaty signifies the beginning of a new stage in relations between the two states. The Treaty, which is a programme document that juridically defines the development of Russian-Chinese relations, reflects the peace ideology of the two countries and their peoples.

The sides have agreed to comprehensively develop, on a long-term basis, the relations of good-neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation in accordance with the generally recognised principles and the norms of the International Law.

In their relations, the Contracting Parties do not use force or a threat of force, do not use economic or other methods of pressure on each other and solve differences between them exclusively in a peaceful way in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter and with other generally recognised principles and norms of the International Law. The sides confirm their commitments not to be the first to use nuclear weapons against each other and not to target strategic nuclear missiles on each other.

The sides have confirmed their adherence to the international legal principles of territorial integrity and the inviolability of the state borders.

Under this Treaty the sides do not take part in any unions or blocks and not take any actions, including the conclusion of treaties with third countries, that can inflict damage on the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of the other Contracting Party. The countries have committed themselves to jointly work for maintaining a global strategic balance and stability and also to actively contribute to the process of nuclear and chemical disarmament, to contribute to the strengthening of the regime of banning biological weapons, and to carry out measures for preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, means of their delivery and the technologies connected with them.

The sides have agreed to develop cooperation in trade, economic, military-technological, scientific-technological, energy, transport, the nuclear power industry, financial, space, aviation, information technologies and in other spheres of mutual interest, to contribute to the development of across-border and inter-regional cooperation and create the necessary conditions for this purpose. The sides have committed themselves to contribute to exchanges and cooperation in the spheres of culture, education, public health, information, tourism, sports and law.

The Treaty will be in force for twenty years with its automatic prolongation for the next five-year periods if neither of the Contracting Parties notifies in a written form the other Contracting Party of its intention to withdraw from it at least a year before the expiration of the period of the validity of the Treaty.

The Treaty was ratified by the Russian State Duma (Lower House of parliament) on December 26, 2001 and approved by the Federation Council (Upper House) on January 16, 2002. On January 28, 2002 the law on the ratification was signed by President Vladimir Putin.