MOSCOW - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in Moscow Wednesday for a state visit to Russia to deepen pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia.

Related readings: Hu's visit to bring new impetus to ties with Russia

Chinese diplomats said Hu's current visit to Russia is of great importance as this year marks the 10th anniversary of the signing of the China-Russia Treaty on Good-neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation.

In the Russian capital, Hu will meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the further development of the strategic and cooperative partnership between the two nations in the next decade.

China hopes that leaders of both countries will jointly plan the direction for the development of bilateral relations over the next decade, said Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping at a press briefing last week.

He said that Hu's visit is expected to enhance strategic mutual trust and mutual support on issues concerning core interests and deepen communication on issues of common concern.

In the past decade, the development of China-Russia ties made remarkable progress. Political and strategic mutual trust between the two nations have deepened continuously. The two sides have established mechanisms for high-level exchange of visits and all-round cooperation.

The two nations have become each other's major trading partner, and have coordinated closely in dealing with major world and regional affairs.

In 2010, Hu and Medvedev had six bilateral meetings, and reached important agreement on further deepening the China-Russia strategic and cooperative partnership.

Last year, their two-way trade volume reached $55.4 billion, an increase of 43 percent over the previous year.

In the first part of this year, the development of bilateral ties has maintained a sound momentum.

Two months ago, the Chinese and Russian presidents met for the first time this year on the sidelines of a BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in the southern Chinese beach resort of Sanya, and the two leaders agreed to further improve cooperation and safeguard common interests.

The China-Russia oil pipeline started operation at the beginning of this year, and the fifth round of their strategic security consultations  last January was a great success.

In the first four months of this year, bilateral trade stood at 22.3 billion dollars. The two countries have also had closer coordination and cooperation in dealing with international and regional affairs.

Speaking at a press conference last month, Medvedev spoke highly of bilateral ties between Russia and China, saying their bilateral cooperation has bright prospects.

"I think our relations are excellent. As my Chinese partners' saying, we might have never had such advanced and good relations," Medvedev said.

"We hope our relations will continue boosting in the next years and decades," he said.

Meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi last month, the Russian president said that Hu's visit to Russia is a big event for bilateral ties, and Russia would give high priority and make joint efforts with China to ensure the success of the visit.

Hu flew in from Astana after concluding a visit to Kazakhstan and attending a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

From Moscow, President Hu will travel to St. Petersburg to attend the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He is expected to deliver an important speech at the opening ceremony of the forum.