Chronologies
China - Russia
Chronology from Jan 2005 to Mar 2005
: The SCO Council of National Coordinators meets in Beijing.
: Chinese FM Li holds telephone conversations with his Kazakh, Uzbek, and Tajik counterparts to discuss the situation in Kyrgyzstan and further development of the SCO.
: Chinese FM Li speaks via telephone to Russian FM Lavrov, exchanging views on Kyrgyzstan and reform of the UN.
: Russian Deputy FM Alexander Alexeyev holds consultations with China’s Deputy FM Wu Dawei and Assistant FM Li Hui over North Korea’s nuclear problem. Russian officials described the positions of Moscow and Beijing on this issue as “coinciding.”
: Russian military delegation led by Armed Forces Chief of Staff Yury Baluyevsky pays formal friendship visit at the invitation of PLA Chief of Staff Liang Guanglie. The 3rd round of talks regarding the Commonwealth military exercise are held. Baluyevsky meets with DM Cao Gangchuan and Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Council Guo Boxiong, and later Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. Baluyevsky says Russia is against any secessionist activities of “Taiwan independence” in any form and would stick to the “one China” policy.
: Russia and China reach cooperative agreements on 70 hi-tech projects at the Chinese-Russian hi-tech cooperation forum in Beijing, including energy conservation, environmental protection, and nanotechnology.
: Chinese military delegation visits Moscow to coordinate the Russian-Chinese exercise. Participants decide that the exercise would take eight days in the second half of August and military observers from the SCO member states would be invited.
: Unified Energy System of Russia and the State Grid Corporation of China sign a memo in Beijing to further power cooperation between the two countries.
: Group of Chinese military officers arrives in Moscow to finalize detailed plans for Sodruzhestvo-2005 (Commonwealth-2005) to be held in the fall. The Chinese side later asked to delay the talks for “technical reasons.”
: Branch of Khabarovsk-based Chinese Consulate General opens in Vladivostok, ending need to travel 700km to Khabarovsk to resolve visa and business problems. China has become the Maritime Territory’s biggest trade partner with trade between the territory and China exceeding $829 million in 2004, the volume of Chinese investment reaching $9.5 million.
: Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) holds its annual foreign ministerial meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan. A joint communiqué is issued calling for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula as well as for peace and stability in the region.
: Russian Deputy FM Alexander Alexeyev meets in Moscow with Li Bingcai, executive deputy director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. They discuss China’s anti-secession law and “certain issues concerning Russian-Chinese relations and also the situation in East Asia.”
: Chinese FM Li Zhaoxing and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov exchange views on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue in a telephone conversation.
: Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan visits Russia as guest of Igor Ivanov, secretary of the Russian Security Council. During the visit they reach agreement to create and launch a Russian-Chinese inter-governmental consultation mechanism on security issues. Tang is also received by President Putin and PM Mikhail Fradkov.
: Col. Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi, Russian Land Forces deputy commander-in-chief, leads Russian delegation to Beijing to work on details of the joint Russian-Chinese military exercise in the fall.
: Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov visits Beijing and Shanghai. He meets in Beijing with Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
: China-Russian trade for 2004 reached $21.23 billion, with a $3.03 billion surplus for Russia, 34.7 percent growth over 2003.