Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan on Tuesday vowed to further the Sino-Russian military ties in the new year.  

Cao, also vice chairman of the Central Military Commission and a state councilor, made the remarks when meeting with Yury Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, who arrived in Beijing Monday to attend the eighth round of Sino-Russian military consultations.

Cao said with the support of the two heads of state, the China-Russia strategic cooperative partnership has maintained sound development.

He said the Sino-Russian good-neighborly treaty of friendship and cooperation, signed on July 16, 2001, set up a peaceful concept of boosting friendship from generation to generation and never targeting each other as enemies, which fixes a solid legal basis for the long-term development of Sino-Russian ties.

China and Russia also conducted fruitful cooperation in the military field, said Cao, urging both sides to expand cooperation in more areas and push the bilateral military ties to a new stage.

Baluyevsky said in the new prefecture, the re-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay more attention to boosting the strategic cooperative partnership between Russia and China, and the bilateral military ties will also been strengthened.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2004)