Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks yesterday with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao (
Details of Putin's meeting with Hu -- their fifth in a year -- weren't immediately released, but officials said the two planned to discuss the pipeline and possibly several other business deals, as well as efforts to expand military ties.
"Moscow-Beijing relations are now at their highest point in their entire history," Sergei Prikhodko, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass.
Putin was accompanied by a 90-member delegation of leaders of Russia's state-owned Rosneft oil company and Gazprom gas monopoly, as well as aircraft, telecommunications and other industries.
Earlier yesterday, Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇) attended the opening of a media center to promote an upcoming Russian cultural year in China.
Today, the Russian leader was slated to visit Shaolin, the Chinese town regarded as the birthplace of the martial art kung fu.
Officials in Moscow and Beijing are looking to spur new investment between the former Cold War-era adversaries and double last year's US$29 billion in trade by 2010.
China is a leading buyer of Russian oil and is the top foreign buyer for Moscow's arms industry.
Both Tokyo and Beijing have maneuvered hard for the best routing of the 4,100km East Siberian-Pacific pipeline. For now, China imports all its Russian oil via rail.
China and Russia have moved to deepen political ties following years of Cold War-era suspicion. Both have pledged commitment to a "multipolar world" and last year warned other nations against attempts to dominate global affairs and interfere in sovereign nations' domestic matters.
In an interview with China's official Xinhua News Agency, Putin gave a veiled warning over US policies to encourage democracy in the former Soviet republics, saying that attempts to "forcibly export democracy and impose cultural standards and values" result in conflicts.
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