BEIJING (RIA Novosti): During a video conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping officially announced the extension of the Russian-Chinese treaty on good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, the PRC Central Television reports.
“This document enshrines such fundamental agreements as mutual support in protecting state unity and territorial integrity, refusal to be the first to use nuclear weapons and mutual targeting of strategic missiles,” the Russian president said.
He stressed that the document recorded the absence of mutual territorial claims and the determination of the two countries to turn the common border into a “belt of eternal peace and friendship.”
“In the modern world, such agreements are of great importance – respect for the sovereign right to choose a social structure, path of development, non-interference in internal affairs,” Putin added.
Modern relations between countries are officially defined by them as an all-encompassing equal trusting partnership and strategic interaction. The basic principles are reflected in this agreement, which Putin signed with then-head of the PRC Jiang Zemin in 2001.
In March of this year, Moscow and Beijing agreed to automatically extend the agreement for another five years.
