Chinese President Hu Jintao and visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin have stressed that China and Russia should further strengthen and deepen bilateral strategic collaboration and performance-oriented cooperation in their talks in Beijing.

China and Russia have established a strategic partnership of cooperation, which is more than a simple bilateral relation in terms of contents and implications. The strategic and cooperative partnership between the two countries was built on a solid legal basis.

In 2001, China and Russian Federation signed the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, which laid a solid foundation for a long-term, stable, and healthy development of the Sino-Russian relations.

Strategic collaboration and performance-oriented cooperation are the principles and direction for developing the Sino-Russian relations in the new century.

In October 2004, President Hu Jintao and Russian President Putin approved the Outline on Implementing the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation Between the People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation (2005-2008), holding that the outline is of great significance to implementing the treaty in the next few years, providing explicit guidance on how to deepen and expand the strategic cooperation between the two countries.

President Hu Jintao said that China and Russia should put their consensus into effect so as to maintain the positive momentum of the development of bilateral relations. The main task of the two countries in the coming years was to implement every document and agreement that had been signed, truly enhance bilateral cooperation, push forward the implementation of the outline, set up plans and measures for key projects, and make significant achievements in energy, investment, high-tech cooperation and other projects.

Seeking all-round strategic collaboration and performance-oriented cooperation, China and Russia will continue to support each other in major issues concerning national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity. The two countries will continue to improve national security consultation mechanism to jointly cope with new challenges and threats and safeguard the common interests of the two. They will enhance military cooperation and promote mutual trust so as to maintain the regional and world peace and stability.

Both countries will spare no efforts in expanding non-governmental exchanges, promoting mutual understanding and long-term friendship between their peoples, and consolidating the community foundations for the Sino-Russian relations.

Beijing and Moscow will try their best to host the current "Year of Russia" and the "Year of China" in 2007. Both sides believe that the two big events will become the main theme of the Sino-Russian relations and vigorously promote bilateral cooperation in politics, economics, trade, science and technology, and humanities, hence consolidating the Sino-Russian friendship from generation to generation.

Sino-Russian strategic and cooperative partnership is a new type of interstate relationship, which makes great contributions to the establishment of a new international order.

The two countries will adopt effective measures, together with other countries, to deepen and promote the collaboration concerning security, economy and other topics within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

China and Russia will further strengthen bilateral dialogues, coordination and cooperation within the ASEAN Regional Forum so as to support Russia to establish connections with East Asian regional integration network. The two countries are willing to join hands with other relevant countries to make up essential constructive forces in the world security system and contribute to a developing and harmonious world.

China and Russia are the largest neighbors to each other. It is the common choice of both countries to seek good neighborliness and friendship. The two countries treat each other as strategic partners and shoulder the same tasks in seeking cooperation and promoting common development.

China and Russia are both permanent members of the Security Council of the United Nations, undertaking the same mission in safeguarding regional and world peace and stability.

Developing Sino-Russian strategic and cooperative partnership is a foreign policy priority for both countries. Chinese and Russian governments, joining hands with their people, will work together in the "Year of Russia" and "Year of China" to further promote bilateral exchanges and performance-oriented cooperation between the two countries and pledge to deepen development of friendly neighborliness and strategic partnership.

Xing Guangcheng, director of Eastern Europe and Central Asia Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is the author of the article translated by People's Daily Online