China is praising its strategic partnership with Russia, but says it
hopes to intensify the China-Russia dialogue to resolve unspecified
problems in the relationship.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang Thursday praised his country's relations with its giant neighbor, Russia.
Qin
says China is willing to "join hands" with Russia to
press ahead with bilateral relations, especially against the backdrop
of what he describes as the "complicated international situation."
His
comments came as Chinese President Hu Jintao ended a three-day visit to
Russia. He first attended important meetings in Yekatarinberg, in
central Russia, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the
so-called BRIC grouping of Brazil, Russia, India and China.
Wednesday, he met with the Russian president in Moscow.
Problems remain
In Beijing, the Chinese spokesman acknowledged problems remain between the two sides.
Qin
says China is willing to follow what he calls the "spirit of strategic
coordination" to intensify dialogue and cooperation, to resolve what he
calls the "existing issues."
The spokesman gave no details, but
recent Chinese media reports have focused on a price dispute about how
much China should pay for imports of Russian gas.
Territorial issue resolved
Last October,
the two countries formally settled one of their thorniest issues - the
demarcation of their 4,300-kilometer border. Russia returned 174
square kilometers of largely-uninhabited territory to China. The
territory had been sized by the then-Soviet Union during a border
skirmish in 1929.
The Chinese spokesman says, despite some
remaining problems, the two countries have "highly similar views" on
the major international and regional issues of common interest.
