China is Russia`s strategic partner - Putin.

MOSCOW, March 23 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
said on Tuesday that China is Russia's strategic partner in the true sense
of the word. The prime minister thanked China's Vice-President Xi Jinping
for accepting the invitation to visit Russia and conveyed best wishes to
the Chinese president and prime minister.
According to Putin, Russia keeps supporting China on all issues,
including the Taiwan problem. "We have always supported China on most
sensitive issues, including the Taiwan problem," he stated. "We intend to
further build relations with China on the basis of respect for our common
interests," the prime minister stressed.
The vice-president thanked Putin for the invitation and also conveyed
greetings from the Chinese president and prime minister. He emphasized the
role of Russia as one of the key players on the world arena.
"We support a democratic and strong Russia as one of the poles in the
present-day world order," the Chinese official said at talks with Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
He stressed that China wants Russia to "play an important role in
international and regional affairs, that would be in line with its status
of a great power".
According to Xi Jinping, China expects that its relations with Russia
would progress to a higher level. "We will support you by all means," he
said, adding that China "seeks to bring our mutually advantageous business
cooperation to a higher level".
"In the process of profound transformations of the world economic
order, we must take into consideration the interests of Russia, China and
developing countries," Xi Jinping stressed. "China and Russia must keep
favouring them, as well as the establishment of multi-polar world and
democratisation of international relations," he added.
"In conditions of a changing international situation, it is very
important for us to maintain the current content of Russian-Chinese
relations," the top Chinese official stressed.
-0-zhe/gor