The President of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Yuri Osipov, presented in Beijing Monday the first volume of a Russian Encyclopedia to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), which is the international debut of the voluminous book outside Russia.

CASS President Chen Kuiyuan said at a ceremony, "The academic exchange and cooperation between the CASS and RAS will contribute to the overall friendship between China and Russia."

Chen said he hopes the Chinese version of Russian Encyclopedia will be published soon.

Osipov said, "Since the publication of The Soviet Union Encyclopedia in 1978, the world has changed greatly and our perspective of the changing world have changed accordingly."

"We need to compile a new encyclopedia that reflects views of Russian people about the changing world," Osipov said.

The first volume of the encyclopedia is about Russia itself, including descriptions of politics, economy, science and technology, culture and arts, among others.

"We will have a single chapter concerning China," Osipov said, adding, "We hope Chinese scientists will join us in compiling the Chinese section."

Russia is expected to complete the whole 35 volumes of the encyclopedia in a decade. More than 1,000 entries in the encyclopedia concern China.

(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2006)