Chronologies
China - Russia
Chronology from Oct 2004 to Dec 2004
: Faina (Epatcheva Vahaleva) Chiang, the Russian-born widow of the late Taiwan President Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1988), dies in Taipei at 88. She met Chiang at the Ural Heavy Machinery Plant in Siberia where Stalin exiled the young Chiang to work after his father, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, purged leftists from China’s Nationalist Party in the late 1920s.
: Russian DM Ivanov visits Beijing to attend the 11th session of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on military-technical cooperation. The two sides work out details on 2005 joint military exercises and sign document on military-technology cooperation for five years. Ivanov meets Chinese Defense Minister Col. Gen. Cao Gangchuan and Deputy Chairman of the Central Military Council Col. Gen. Guo Boxiong and on Dec. 13, meets President Hu, who states that China-Russia strategic coordination “has attained an unprecedentedly high level.”
: SCO anti-drug agencies met in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, to coordinate efforts against narcotics and psychotropic substances.
: Representatives of the financial intelligence agencies of Russia, China, Tajikistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan meet in Moscow for the first session of the Eurasian group for counteracting money laundering and the funding of terrorism (EAG). The EAG’s key objectives are countering money laundering and the funding of terrorism. Observers include the UK, the U.S., Georgia, Italy, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, France, World Bank, IMF, the CIS, SCO, the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Community, Interpol, and the UN office on drugs and crime.
: Three Chinese citizens – naval officers and Kuznetsov Military Naval Academy students – are attacked by eight Russian hooligans in St. Petersburg. Local police detain two.
: Dalai Lama visits Russia, the first time since 1992. In 1996, he passed through Russia on his way to Mongolia.
: FM Li and Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov hold talks in Vientiane, Laos during the eighth summit between ASEAN and China. They discuss Iraq and SCO.
: President Putin holds a working meeting in Chile with President Hu during the 12th annual APEC meeting.
: Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party Liaison Department, starts visit to Russia at the invitation of the United Russia Party.
: Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Li Zhaoxing discuss Russian-Chinese relations on the telephone; topics included implementation of agreements reached at the Russian-Chinese summit in October 2004, and the Iranian nuclear issue.
: A jury in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk (Territorial) court finds physicist Valentin Danilov guilty of spying for China and embezzlement. The verdict is final and not open to appeal.
: Maj. Gen. Sergei Bunin, chief of staff of the Russian Interior Ministry Force (RIMF), leads a RIMF delegation to three cities in China (Beijing, Shanghai, and Guilin).
: China asks Russia for assistance in the construction of the fourth stage of the uranium enrichment plant in Lanzhou in Gansu Province, according to acting head of Russia’s Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Atomic Monitoring, Andrey Malyshev. In 1992, Russia and China signed a contract to build the plant, with the first three stages launched in 1998, 2000, and 2001.
: The Joint Supervision Group on disarmament consisting of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, all members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), hold its 11th meeting in China. Since 1999, the group has met twice a year to supervise and implement an agreement on the reduction of military forces and confidence building along China’s 7,000-km-long border.
: First meeting of the Russian-Chinese Business Council held in Beijing, following the signing of the agreement on its establishment by co-chairmen of the Russian-Chinese Committee of Friendship, Peace and Development Leonid Drachevsky and China Council for the Promotion of International Trading (CCPIT) Wan Jifei. The meeting sets up 13 working groups in charge of basic lines of cooperation, including one for resolving business disputes.
: President Putin pays a state visit to China and holds separate talks with President Hu, National People’s Congress Chairman Wu Bangguo, and Premier Wen. Fourteen documents were signed including a border agreement to settle the 300-plus years of border/territorial disputes, a protocol on Russia’s entry into the WTO, a Joint Action Plan for 2005-2008, and a joint communiqué.
: The 2nd Russian-Chinese business conference held in Beijing. A framework agreement on cooperation in tourism, education and the services sector was signed.