From October 27 to 31, 2008, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council paid an official visit to Russia and held the 13th regular meeting with his Russian counterpart and then visited Kazakhstan and attended the 7th prime ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members. On the way back to China, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi who had accompanied Wen during the tour introduced to the journalists the outcome of the premier’s visit.

According to Yang, against the background of complicated and fluctuating international situation with deteriorating and spreading of the global financial crisis and increasing unstable factors in the world economy, it is the common desire of China, Russia, Kazakhstan and other SCO members to strengthen communications and coordination, jointly guard against and prevent the risks and deepen the pragmatic cooperation. The international community pays close attention to the proposition and role of China. The visit of Premier Wen was timely, well-targeted and significant. He made great efforts to make friends, promote solidarity, encourage confidence and seek cooperation in a friendly, frank and pragmatic attitude wherever he went, which has fully demonstrated the principle of being a good neighbor and a good partner with neighboring countries and the commitment to peace, development, cooperation and responsibility of China. The visit has achieved important and fruitful outcome.

I. Deepening mutual trust, cooperation and friendship between China and Russia

Yang said that the high-level and unique strategic partnership between China and Russia is based on deep mutual trust, comprehensive cooperation and long-lasting friendship.

During the visit, Premier Wen exchanged in-depth opinions with President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin on the bilateral relations and major international and regional issues including the international financial crisis. Wen emphasized that it is of great realistic and strategic importance to push forward the development of China-Russia strategic partnership in order to safeguard the common interest of the two countries and maintain world peace and stability under the fluctuating international situation. Both sides should continue to give top priority to deepening the political mutual trust, extend support on issues concerning the major concern and core interest of the other side, facilitate the development of each other and keep timely communications and close coordination in major affairs. The Russian leaders noted that the determinant factor of the high-level and special strategic partnership between the two countries is deep mutual trust. The Russian side is willing to strengthen coordination and collaboration with China, jointly cope with the challenges and push for the establishment of a fair and reasonable international political and economic order.

The two sides agreed to jointly push for the improvement of the international financial organizational system, increase the voice of the emerging and developing countries, reform the international financial regulatory system and promote the development of a diversified international currency system in order to maintain the healthy and stable financial and economic development of China, Russia and the rest of the world.

Wen stressed that the all-round and win-win cooperation between China and Russia enjoys great potential and a promising future. He raised a series of important proposals on expanding the bilateral cooperation and lifting it to new levels. Those realistic yet far-reaching proposals, taking into account the interest and concerns of both sides and complying with business rules, were well received by the Russian side. The two countries agreed to continue to optimize the trade structure, standardize the trade order and enhance cooperation in such fields as energy, investment, electronic machines, aviation and aerospace. They signed 14 documents on important projects including the construction of crude pipeline between China and Russia.

They also agreed to take the opportunity of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Russia next year to comprehensively push forward the bilateral cultural and educational exchanges, make careful preparations for the “language year” activities in 2009 and 2010 respectively and hold regular culture festivals. Premier Wen held talks with friendly Russian personnel, accepted media interview and sent the message that China and Russia are friends forever to the Russian people, which was well recognized by the Russian society.

II. Promoting the in-depth development of China-Kazakhstan strategic partnership

Yang noted that Kazakhstan is a friendly neighbor and important partner of China. The visit was the first one paid by Premier Wen to Kazakhstan and 7 years after the last one paid by Chinese premier to the country.

The two sides spoke highly of their good-neighborly friendship and cooperation in various fields. They pointed out unanimously that China and Kazakhstan should be good neighbors, good friends and good partners forever, deepen and expand the mutually beneficial cooperation, maintain security and realize common development. They agreed to strengthen energy cooperation, give priority to ensuring the completion of the phase-two project of gas and crude pipelines linking the two countries before the end of 2009, broaden cooperation in non-resource areas, speed up port cooperation to facilitate personnel and logistics exchanges, reinforce security cooperation and jointly combat the “three forces”. They signed a number of cooperation documents in the fields of customs, health, agriculture, bank, energy, science and technology.

Concerning the utilization and protection of the cross-border river linking China and Kazakhstan, Wen noted that China is willing to make consultations with Kazakhstan to seek solutions in the principle of being responsible and seeking mutual benefit, on which Kazakhstan expressed admiration.

The leaders of the two countries exchanged opinions on the international financial crisis. Premier Wen reiterated that China expects to strengthen cooperation with Kazakhstan, extend support to each other and jointly cope with the crisis. He expressed confidence that the China-Kazakhstan friendship will grow stronger after experiencing the crisis. China supports the cooperation between the businesses of the two countries in a more flexible manner to ease the impact of the crisis. According to the Kazak side, it values and admires the position and role of China and hopes China to maintain stable and relatively fast economic growth since this is critical to the region and the world at large.

III. Increasing the SCO’s confidence to cope with the international financial crisis and promoting the pragmatic cooperation within the framework of the organization

The SCO members are increasingly aware that only by deepening cooperation can they realize the long-term stability and common development in the region, said Yang. At the Dushanbe summit held in August this year, the heads of state of the SCO members agreed to deepen the SCO cooperation in the political, security, economic, cultural and educational areas. The task of the 7th prime ministers’ meeting was to comprehensively implement the consensus of the Dushanbe summit.

The impact of the financial crisis on the region and SCO members was a major topic of the meeting. Premier Wen pointed out that to defeat the crisis deepens on confidence, responsibility and cooperation. The SCO members should send a strong message to the outside world of joining hands to cope with the crisis, stabilizing finance and economy and building market confidence. He said that China hopes to reinforce communications and coordination with other SCO members while maintaining the stable and relatively fast growth of its own economy. He raised specific proposals on utilizing the cooperative mechanisms of the central banks and economic regulatory authorities of member states to discuss the bilateral and multilateral measures to handle the financial crisis, encouraging the financial institutions of the members to conduct various forms of cooperation against the lack of market liquidity so as to stabilize the financial market, strengthen the financial supervision and ensure the financial security.

Only by enhancing the pragmatic cooperation within the organization, can the member states basically guard against the external risks and challenges, stressed Wen. He proposed making full use of their advantages in terms of vast territory, large population, rich resources, huge market, advanced technology and pool of talents, expanding the areas, raising the efficiency and facilitating the conditions of cooperation and consolidating the foundation of the real economy.

The above-mentioned proposition and proposals of Premier Wen represented the common will of all the parties concerned and were widely accepted. The SCO members indicated the willingness of making joint efforts to overcome the difficulties, push forward the pragmatic cooperation and promote the common and sustainable development.

The meeting adopted a number of cooperation documents covering a wide range of areas, which fully reflected the position and proposition of the Chinese side.

Yang said lastly that the Russian, Kazak and the international media extensively covered the visit of Premier Wen objectively and positively saying that the visit has strengthened China’s friendly and cooperative relations with Russia and Kazakhstan. China has played an important role within the SCO of stepping up the efforts to cope with the international financial crisis and deepen the cooperation and displayed the image of a responsible big power.