Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing met in Moscow Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Valentina Matviyenko to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between China and Russia in the fields of sports, culture, education and public health.
During the meeting, Li said he arrived in Moscow to attend the 112th plenary session of the International Olympic Committee, which will select two days later the city to host the 2008 Olympic Games. Beijing is one of the five candidate cities bidding for the games and the Chinese government firmly supports Beijing's bid, he said.
Li said that the Chinese government hopes, by hosting the Olympic Games, to expand the exchanges in the spheres of sports and culture with all the countries in the world as well as to boost the friendly contacts and cooperation with them in order to promote global peace and development.
On bilateral ties, Li said that Sino-Russian relations are developing vigorously, and that in the coming days, Chinese President Jiang Zemin will pay a state visit to Russia and sign with President Vladimir Putin a treaty on good neighborliness and friendly cooperation.
He said that the treaty will become a legal document to guide the development of bilateral ties in the new century and produce a positive and far-reaching impact on the development of the long- term good neighborliness, friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two nations.
Matviyenko said that President Jiang Zemin's upcoming state visit to Russia and the signing of the vital treaty will mark a very important step forward in bilateral relations.
Li, heading a delegation of the Chinese government, arrived in Moscow Tuesday.
(Xinhua News Agency 07/12/2001)
