MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow and Beijing should set a mechanism of bilateral governmental cooperation to better address the issues of mutual interest.
"Mr. [President] Xi Jinping devotes much of his personal attention to the development of Russia-China relations. He is a very good friend and a reliable partner. Nonetheless, our efforts alone would have been insufficient for the successful development of ties between Russia and China. Naturally, this called for the establishment of a mechanism to ensure cooperation between the governments of the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China," Putin said in an interview with the Chinese Xinhua news agency.
According to the Russian president, the relations between Russian and China are currently "at a very high level," and joint work provides for further positive momentum.
"As we had never reached this level of relations before, our experts have had trouble defining today's general state of our common affairs. It turns out that to say we have strategic cooperation is not enough anymore. This is why we have started talking about a comprehensive partnership and strategic collaboration," Putin said.
The primary task for the two countries should be diversification of ties, as well as making them more "sophisticated," he concluded.
Putin will pay an official visit to China on June 25 at the invitation of the Chinese president.
