Chinese President Jiang Zemin said June 6 that a better relationship between Russia, the United States and Europe will be good to world peace, security and stability.

Jiang made the remarks during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the second summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

He said Russia is an important force in the world affairs. A better relationship between Russia and the United States, and that between Russia and Europe, characterized with more dialogue and cooperation between them, will be more conducive to regional and world peace, security and stability.

Jiang also said the strategic partnership between China and Russia had withstood the test of time. The close contacts between top leaders of the two countries had always been a driving force behind the development of the bilateral relations, he noted.

The top priority facing the two countries now is to implement the Sino-Russian Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, Jiang said. The two countries should strengthen mutual trust politically and conduct cooperation in the economic and trade areas.

Putin said his meeting with Jiang would help strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, which was also helpful to maintaining world peace.

He said Russia and China know each other's history and culture very well and are the biggest neighbor to each other. Therefore, the two countries have every reason and condition to keep good-neighborly relations and have mutually beneficial cooperation.

The Russian president said the good-neighborly treaty signed a year ago between Russia and China was a timely and correct choice of the two countries. He said the two sides should strengthen cooperation in various areas in accordance with the principles and spirit of the treaty.

On the prospects of the SCO, Jiang said the establishment of the SCO was a correct and far-sighted choice of its six member countries, as has been proven by the development of international situation over the past year. He said he is fully confident of the future of the organization.

Putin agreed with Jiang's remarks on the SCO, and said he hopes to work with Jiang and other leaders of the SCO to make the upcoming summit meeting a success on Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2002)