Liang Guanglie, chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), met in Beijing Monday with Yury Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.  

Liang welcomed Baluyevsky, who had just arrived in Beijing to attend the eighth round of Sino-Russian military consultations.

Liang said as an important consensus jointly reached by the two heads of state, the Sino-Russian military consultative mechanism has become the important content of China-Russia military exchanges and cooperation, which has been proved through practice to be effective in increasing mutual understanding and trust, deepening friendship and further bilateral ties between China and Russia.

Liang expressed his hopes of pushing the Sino-Russian military ties to a new level along with the development of the China-Russia ties.

Baluyevsky said during this year's military consultations between Russia and China, both sides should further strengthen military exchanges and cooperation as a concrete step to boosting friendship and never targeting each other as enemies.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2004)