Putin to pay state visit to China

BEIJING - Vice-President Xi Jinping met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Beijing on Friday, vowing to make Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming China visit a complete success.

President Putin is to pay a state visit to China in early June and attend the Beijing summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as guest of President Hu Jintao, Xi said.

"China attaches great importance to the visit, and is in close coordination with Russia on the preparations," Xi said.

He expressed his hope that both sides will keep close coordination in the final preparation, and ensure the meeting between the two heads of state becomes a fruitful one that boosts future growth of bilateral ties.

"Leaders of the two countries fully understand the strategic, long-term and comprehensive nature of China-Russia relations, and always take the relationship as one of each other's diplomatic priorities, Xi said.

As permanent members of the UN Security Council and major emerging economies, the two countries share the same or similar views on major global and regional issues over the years, and have kept close cooperation and contributed to regional and world peace, said the vice president.

Stressing the great significance of the SCO summit in June, Xi called on both countries and other member states to consolidate and strengthen the SCO, and further cooperation within the mechanism.

Founded in Shanghai in 2001, SCO comprises six member countries: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

In response, Lavrov said he is in China to pave the way for Putin's visit, adding that all preparation work is well underway.

He said Russia is satisfied with the sound growth of relations with China, citing high-level political trust, rapid growth of trade, vigorous cultural exchanges and close coordination on major global and regional issues and within multilateral frameworks such as the United Nations and SCO.

Russia hopes to ramp up cooperation with China in various areas, and take the bilateral comprehensive partnership of strategic coordination to a new stage, he added.

Lavrov visited China from Thursday to Friday to attend a meeting of SCO foreign ministers.