Putin to visit China on March 21-22
(Itar-Tass)
Updated: 2006-03-09 18:02

Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an official visit to China on March 21-22, at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Kremlin press service said on Thursday.

The trip by the head of the Russian state is timed with the ceremony launching the Year of Russia in China, a year-long festival promoting cultural contacts between the two countries.

The Russian and Chinese leaders will discuss the key issues of bilateral relations and exchange views about the situation in the world.

A Russian-Chinese business forum in Beijing will be attended by Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao.

The Year of Russia festival will be opened under a long-standing accord between the two leaders. Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who visited Beijing last December, personally supervised the preparations for program events.

He told reporters then that it is planned to carry out, within the framework of the festival, more than 200 events at various levels, in Beijing and Chinese provinces.

Vladimir Putin pays much attention to the development of Russian-Chinese ties in all fields, including the humanitarian one.

"Favorable conditions have been created for intensifying our strategic partnership in the spirit of mutual respect and trust," he noted in a recent message to Hu Jintao.

"It is this purpose that the holding of the Year of Russia in China and the Year of China in Russia intended to serve.

"These large-scale events, which have no analogues in the history of relations between our countries will become the core around which a whole spectrum of Russian-Chinese ties will be built," Putin said.

"I have no doubts that the holding of the Year of Russia in China will help make an important step towards the building up of Russian-Chinese interaction, while the solemn ceremony of opening the Year will become a true holiday of friendship between the two great nations," the Russian president noted.

Aside from the visit to China in March, Putin plans to travel to China in the summer, to take part in the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which China will host in June.