China's Hu meets Putin to discuss military, energy issues
MOSCOW : Chinese President Hu Jintao met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the start of a four-day visit to Russia with military, economic and energy cooperation expected to head the agenda.
Hu kicked off his tour by joining Putin for an informal meeting at his residence in Novo-Ogarevo outside Moscow, where Putin announced that joint military exercises would be held later this year.
Russian news agencies have quoted military sources as saying that the exercises will be dubbed "Friendship 2005" and will take place in August.
Hu welcomed what he said was a "positive tendency" in relations between the two giant neighbours, welcoming the fact that border issues have been "definitively resolved."
The Chinese leader arrived in Moscow earlier Thursday and will also visit Novosibirsk in Siberia during his visit. After Russia, Hu goes on to Kazakhstan and to the Group of Eight summit in Scotland.
Hu and Putin were meeting for a second time Friday in the formal setting of the Kremlin, where they were expected to sign a joint declaration on the "international order in the 21st century."
The document reflects Moscow's hopes of forming a united front with Beijing, in the face of Washington's growing influence in the former Soviet Union and especially Central Asia, Russian media said.
"Russia and China with one voice declare the inadmissibility of efforts at monopolising world affairs, the dividing of states into the leaders and the led, the imposition from outside of models of social development, the application of double standards," a Russian foreign ministry spokesman said earlier.
Beijing is also eyeing Russian energy deals to fuel its own booming economy.
Beijing wants a pipeline to be built from Russia's Siberian oil fields to China, possibly branching off from a major pipeline lobbied for by China's rival Japan.
"The sides have reached a common opinion concerning questions such as construction of a pipeline between China and Russia, exploitation of oil and gas deposits, deliveries of oil..." Hu said in an interview Thursday in Russia's Izvestia newspaper.
Russian officials have been cautious on the pipeline route, while analysts said it may take another 10 years for China to realize its hopes of securing natural gas from the huge Kovykta field in Irkutsk region.
While oil deliveries by China by rail should reach 10 million tonnes annually next year, the routing of a pipeline to China will depend on the success of still outstanding work at the Siberian oil fields, Valery Nesterov, an analyst with Troika Dialog brokerage house, said.
"Much will hinge on the success or failure of exploration work in east Siberia," Nesterov said.
In the security sphere, Hu, in an interview this week, voiced hope for "close cooperation with Russia in resolving the North Korea nuclear issue, in the fastest possible resumption of six-party talks and ensuring peace and stability in the region."
For Russia, security cooperation is also key, but with Moscow's interests particularly aimed at strengthening regional security through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which comprises Russia, China and four Central Asian countries.
By such cooperation, Russia hopes to form an axis of cooperation between Moscow, Beijing and the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, aimed at more effectively resisting "destabilizing external influence' -- meaning the growing influence of the West," Kommersant newspaper said earlier.
Beyond the issues of security and energy cooperation the countries are keen to raise trade levels.
Hu on Thursday said the aim was to raise bilateral trade from around 20 billion dollars (16.6 billion euros) currently to some 60 billion or 80 billion dollars by 2010.
Russia's hope is to increase energy cooperation, but also in the technology sphere, Izvestia newspaper said Thursday, noting that Russia hopes to build more nuclear power stations in China as work is nearly finished on a first reactor there.
A growing sense of accord between the two countries was reinforced earlier this month when Moscow and Beijing signed an agreement on the route of their 4,300 kilometre (2,700 mile) border, ending a 40-year dispute.
Putin and Hu are to attend a meeting of the SCO heads of state in the Kazakh capital Astana from July 5 to July 6, before heading to the G8 summit in Scotland from July 7 to July 8.
channelnewsasia.com
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