Hu's Moscow tour to Cement China-Russia Strategic Partnership: Foreign Ministry

Chinese President Hu Jintao's upcoming visit to Moscow will boost the China-Russia strategic partnership for coordination, China's Assistant Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said Wednesday.

"At the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, President Hu Jintao will visit Moscow on Saturday and Sunday to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of the Russian Great Patriotic War," Cheng said at a press briefing in Beijing.

Russia's "Great Patriotic War," known in the West as a part of World War Two, refers to the battles from June 1941 to May 1945 against Nazi Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front.

"It is of great significance for Russia to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of the Russian Great Patriotic War," Cheng said, stressing the celebrations will help the international community remember history, reach consensus, seek unity and promote peace.

According to Cheng, on the sidelines of the celebrations, Hu will hold bilateral meetings with some foreign leaders and award honors to some Russian veterans who participated in the battles liberating northeast China occupied by the Japanese troops during WWII.

"President Hu's attendance at the celebrations is a big event in China-Russia relations and symbolizes the spirit of bilateral strategic coordination," Cheng said.

"We believe Hu's visit will boost China-Russia strategic trust for further development of bilateral strategic partnership for coordination," he said.

Hu's attendance at the Moscow celebrations will also be part of commemorative events jointly held by China and Russia, he said.

Others include joint publication of political documents and wreath-laying ceremonies at memorials to Soviet Union martyrs located in China, which have been renovated, he said.

According to the Russian Embassy in China, China is home to 74 such memorials in which lie the remains of around 34,500 Soviet soldiers, who had played an important role in China's victory in the Anti-Japanese War (1937-1945).

Cheng said China-Russia friendship forged in the anti-fascist war had laid a solid foundation and provided an inexhaustible force for the bilateral partnership.

"The China-Russia relationship is the closest and the most dynamic one among big nations and enjoys the greatest potential," Cheng said.

Hu's visit will be part of high-level exchanges this year in a relationship that Cheng described as having "reached an unprecedented level."

Apart from their meeting on the sidelines of the BRIC summit in Brazil last month, Hu and Medvedev will have more opportunities to meet this year, Cheng said.

Russian Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov and State Duma Chairman Boris Gryzlov will visit China this year and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will pay an official visit to Russia in the latter half of 2010, he said.

China-Russia trade cooperation has also gone well this year with trade volume in the first quarter increasing 64 percent to $12 billion .

"Leaving the financial crisis behind, China-Russia cooperation will reap great harvests with yearly trade volume likely hitting $60-80 billion," Cheng said.

A 1,030-kilometer-long oil pipeline running from Skovorodino, Russia, to China's northeastern city of Daqing will be completed on schedule by the year end, Cheng added. The pipeline will transport 15 million tonnes of crude oil annually from Russia to China between 2011 and 2030.

(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2010)