Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks yesterday with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao (
Details of Putin's meeting with Hu -- their fifth in a year -- weren't immediately released, but officials said the two planned to discuss the pipeline and possibly several other business deals, as well as efforts to expand military ties.
"Moscow-Beijing relations are now at their highest point in their entire history," Sergei Prikhodko, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass.
Putin was accompanied by a 90-member delegation of leaders of Russia's state-owned Rosneft oil company and Gazprom gas monopoly, as well as aircraft, telecommunications and other industries.
Earlier yesterday, Putin and Chinese Vice Premier Tang Jiaxuan (唐家璇) attended the opening of a media center to promote an upcoming Russian cultural year in China.
Today, the Russian leader was slated to visit Shaolin, the Chinese town regarded as the birthplace of the martial art kung fu.
Officials in Moscow and Beijing are looking to spur new investment between the former Cold War-era adversaries and double last year's US$29 billion in trade by 2010.
China is a leading buyer of Russian oil and is the top foreign buyer for Moscow's arms industry.
Both Tokyo and Beijing have maneuvered hard for the best routing of the 4,100km East Siberian-Pacific pipeline. For now, China imports all its Russian oil via rail.
China and Russia have moved to deepen political ties following years of Cold War-era suspicion. Both have pledged commitment to a "multipolar world" and last year warned other nations against attempts to dominate global affairs and interfere in sovereign nations' domestic matters.
In an interview with China's official Xinhua News Agency, Putin gave a veiled warning over US policies to encourage democracy in the former Soviet republics, saying that attempts to "forcibly export democracy and impose cultural standards and values" result in conflicts.
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
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