Intereting developments..........
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Presidents Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Jiang Zemin of China spoke by telephone at the weekend part of preparations for a five-nation summit in central Asia this week, a Russian presidential spokesman said Monday.
The two presidents are scheduled to take part in the high-profile meeting Tuesday and Wednesday of the so-called ''Shanghai Five'' leaders in the Kyrgyzstan capital Bishkek to discuss regional problems and bilateral issues.
Other members of the group, which is named after the Chinese city where a key treaty on cooperation was signed in 1996, are Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
One of the key provisions of the treaty was to reduce military movements along mutual borders, thus easing long- standing tensions between China and the former Soviet nations.
The Russian spokesman said the Yeltsin-Jiang conversation, which took place Sunday, was intended to ''synchronize'' the positions of the two leaders prior to the summit.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, speaking on Russian state television after discussing the summit with Yeltsin, said Moscow hoped the meeting would help boost security and cooperation within the five-nation grouping.
''Our countries share a common border of more than 10,000 km (6,250 miles). It must be a border of peace, understanding and cooperation,'' he said.
Kyrgyzstan faced a security crisis Monday after a group of about 30 gunmen, crossing from neighboring Tajikistan, seized a village and took several hostages, including four Japanese geologists. |
