Chinese President Hu Jintao's special envoy, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, met Russian President Vladimir
Putin on Saturday and delivered him a verbal message from Hu which
stressed the need for cooperation between the two countries on the
nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.
China and Russia should cooperate to appropriately respond to
the nuclear test of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) and work together to ease the situation, Hu said in the
message to Putin.
At a meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Tang said the strategic
partnership between China and Russia has been developing
rapidly.
Mutual political trust is deepening, the practical cooperation
has seen marked results and the two countries have maintained close
contact and coordination on major international and regional
issues, Tang said.
Putin thanked Hu for his message and said that the strategic
partnership between the two countries has gone beyond bilateral and
cooperation in the political, security, economic, cultural and
other fields is continuously developing.
On the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Tang said China and
Russia share the same position on the DPRK's nuclear test.
Both sides maintain that the Korean Peninsula should be
denuclearized and the nuclear non-proliferation regime needs to be
safeguarded and that the UN Security Council should come up with a
"necessary and appropriate" response to make room for diplomacy to
work, Tang said.
The two sides also call for the peaceful resolution to the issue
through dialogue and negotiations, urge all the parties concerned
to stop moves that could deteriorate the situation, and to work for
an early resumption of the six-party talks, he said.
The Chinese envoy said China and Russia should strengthen
strategic coordination and work jointly to move the situation
toward taking a turn for the better as the situation in the Korean
Peninsula is closely related to the peace and stability of
Northeast Asia, which is in the common interests of both China and
Russia.
Putin said China and Russia share common interests in
maintaining peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and in
Northeast Asia at large.
He stressed the need for closer coordination to prevent the
situation from deteriorating and to maintain regional peace and
stability.
Earlier, Tang held separate talks with Russian Deputy Prime
Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, Security Council
Secretary Igor Ivanov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2006)
