Vice President Zeng Qinghong met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana on Wednesday and both leaders said they believed 2006 will be another fruitful year for the development of Sino-Russian relations.

 

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the swearing-in ceremony of reelected Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

 

Zeng said to Putin that bilateral ties experienced comprehensive and profound developments in 2005, in which fruitful achievements were obtained in the cooperation in various fields, and political mutual trust and the role of the Strategic Partnership of Coordination was steadily enhanced.

 

This year is the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Sino-Russian Strategic Partnership of Coordination and the first "Year of Russia," Zeng said.

 

The year of 2006 is of great importance in pushing forward bilateral cooperation in various fields, said Zeng.

 

For his part, Putin also spoke highly of the developments of Russian-Chinese relations in the past year.

 

Russia would implement the agreements reached by the leaders of the two countries on the development of bilateral relations, including the cooperation in such fields as the economy, trade and energy, he said.

 

He hoped that both sides would work together to ensure the "Year of Russia" is a success.

 

He expressed confidence that 2006 would be another fruitful year for the development of bilateral relations.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2006)