Chinese President Hu Jintao meets with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Singapore

On November 14, 2009, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev in Singapore. Both sides exchanged in-depth views on how to continue to advance China-Russia relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern.

Hu said the 14th regular prime ministers' meeting of China and Russia reached a range of important consensus, pushing bilateral cooperation on economy, trade, energy, investment and high-tech for new progress. The closing ceremony of "Russian Language Year" in China was also very successful. Hu put forward a four-point proposal on continuously advancing bilateral relations between China and Russia in the new situation. First, Hu said, the two countries should exchange views and coordinate stances in a timely manner on major issues of common concern when making high-level contacts. Second, Hu said, the two countries should seize opportunities created by the world economic recovery to strengthen their pragmatic cooperation, especially in natural gas and nuclear energy. That cooperation would be based upon the principle of win-win situation and mutual benefit, Hu said, adding that both sides should also implement the consensus reached at the regular prime ministers meeting. Third, Hu said, China and Russia should cooperate closely to hold a high-level and characteristic "Chinese Language Year" in Russia next year in an effort to promote cultural exchanges. Fourth, Hu said, China and Russia should deepen their strategic coordination on international affairs, work together to create favorable external conditions for their development and contribute to building a more equitable and rational international order. Moreover, the Chinese president said, they should give full play to the China-Russia strategic security consultation mechanism, support each other on issues concerning the other side's core interests and strengthen coordination on major regional and international issues. As next year will mark the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Second World War, both sides can jointly hold commemorative activities.

Hu also emphasized that APEC is an important platform for both China and Russia to participate in regional cooperation. Noting that Russia would host the 2012 APEC summit, Hu said China would actively support Russia's efforts to make the meeting a success. He said China was ready to work with Russia to advance healthy development of APEC cooperation.

Hu pointed out that the Pittsburgh summit made an important decision of making the Group of 20 a mechanism, which is the significant progress in global economic governance reform. The G20 mechanism should reflect representativeness, equality and effectiveness. Its agenda setting, procedure and decision-making should reflect in a balanced manner opinions and concerns of all parties to ensure democratic consultation, equal participation, mutual benefit and win-win situation. All parties concerned should strive to set up goals that are practical and acceptable to all members and do a good job in establishing the mechanism. China is ready to maintain close communication and consultation with Russia and carry out effective cooperation within the framework of this mechanism.

Medvedev said that leaders of both countries have had frequent meetings during which many substantive agreements on the development of bilateral ties were reached. Describing this year's bilateral activities as being rich and colorful, Medvedev said Prime Minister Putin's visit to China and attendance of the fourteenth regular prime ministers' meeting not long ago proved very fruitful and the activities to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties and the "Russian Language Year" were also very successful. He stressed that those events helped inject new impetus to Russia-China cooperation. He said the two nations should maintain high-level contacts, strengthen communications and coordination on bilateral and multilateral occasions, increase strategic security consultation and safeguard the national security of both countries. They should also expand their cooperation in energy, and strive to ensure the success of the "Chinese Language Year" in Russia in 2010, he said. The Russian president expressed willingness to strengthen bilateral coordination and cooperation with China within the framework of the G20, APEC, "BRIC" and Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The Russian side is ready to hold with China the commemorative activities to mark the 65th anniversary of the victory of the Second World War.

The two leaders also exchanged views on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

Ling Jihua, Wang Huning and Dai Bingguo attended the above activities.