[CubaNews] NYT/REUTERS: Russia Hails China Ties, Defies Western Critics

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

THE NEW YORK TIMES
May 24, 2008
Russia Hails China Ties, Defies Western Critics
By REUTERS

Filed at 5:32 a.m. ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday hailed
ties with huge neighbor China as a key factor in global security, and said
the sometimes uneasy neighbors were determined to boost cooperation even if
it unnerved the West.

Medvedev, sworn in earlier this month, has inherited a country with a
booming economy and international ambitions, but locked in disputes with its
Western partners, which he implied were suspicious of Moscow's links with
China.

His speech came a day after the two jointly condemned U.S. plans to set up
Eastern European bases for a missile defense system, although Washington
shrugged off the remarks.

Analysts have said that this maiden foreign trip to ex-Soviet Kazakhstan and
China was intended to demonstrate that Russia had other allies to
counterbalance strained relations with Europe and the United States and will
pursue a balanced foreign policy.

" Hu Jintao and I agreed that Russian-Chinese cooperation has become a major
factor of global security, without which important decisions are
impossible," he told students at the elite Peking University.

"I will say frankly not everyone likes our strategic co-operation but we
understand it is in the interests of our people whether or not others like
it."

Medvedev won a standing ovation for his speech, which was lavishly scattered
with quotes from Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Taoist sage Laozi.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT

Moscow is also annoyed by what it sees as Western attempts to contain its
diplomatic ambitions and keep Russian companies out of lucrative markets. It
is keen to make China a potential ally in economic as well as strategic
spheres.

"Both our countries are actively preparing for a powerful leap into the
future ... on the basis of equal access into the ranks of leaders of the
global economic development," he said.

"Both states strive to raise the living standards of their people, make
families feel confident in their future."

During Medvedev's trip a deal will be sealed for Russia to build and supply
a $1 billion uranium enrichment plant in China, which may raise hackles in
the West.

But the nuclear cooperation, like the apparently united front on strategic
issues, masks a sometimes uneasy relationship between the two giant
neighbors, who have long jostled for influence in Central Asia and further
afield.

CHINA and the Soviet Union split over the leadership of the Communist world
in the early 1960s and fought a series of small military border skirmishes
in the late 1960s.

They restored friendly relations after the Soviet Union collapsed but some
in the Kremlin are still opposed to Moscow cozying up to its increasingly
powerful neighbor -- and there are some practical stumbling blocks in the
road to better ties.

Although Beijing is desperate to diversify energy supplies away from oil and
gas shipped in to its coast, and Moscow wants to widen the circle of buyers
for its rich resources, the two have been squabbling for years over planned
pipelines.

They have yet to get off the drawing board because the two sides are unable
to agree prices, and as crude markets soar, a deal looks no more likely in
the near future. Russian diplomats said such deals would not be on the main
agenda for this visit.

(Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison)

========================================
WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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