Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a federal law which makes the historic good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation between Russia and China a binding document to guide future bilateral ties, the Kremlin press service announced Monday.
Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin signed the landmark treaty in Moscow on July 16, 2001, and they agreed it would serve as the foundation of future bilateral cooperation. Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, ratified the treaty by an absolute majority on December 26, and the Federation Council or the upper chamber approved it on January 16.
The treaty is expected to guide development of Sino-Russian relations in the new century, and have a profound and far-reaching impact on bilateral ties in the long run.
Summing up the history of Sino-Russian ties, it expounds the main principles, spirit and achievements in developing bilateral relations, which would feature "a friendship from generation to generation and never targeting each other as enemies."
The treaty describes the friendly relations between China and Russia as a new type of state-to-state relationship based on the principles of nonalignment, non-confrontation and "not-against-any- third-country" cooperation.
(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2002)
