On April 4, 2001, Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Deguang of the People's Republic of China and Vice Foreign Minister G. Mamedov of the Russian Federation held consultations on strategic stability in Beijing. The two sides had an in-depth exchange of views and reached broad consensus on missile defense, disarmament and arms control issues.

The two sides reiterated their opposition to the deployment of the NMD system which is prohibited by the ABM Treaty and the development of the TMD system of a military bloc nature for the Asia-Pacific region. They pointed out that the ABM Treaty must be preserved, strengthened and complied with, and they stressed the need to do everything possible to maintain regional and global strategic balance and stability.

The two sides agreed that START II should enter into force as early as possible, and that START I should be complied with. They also agreed that Russia and the US should start talks on a range of issues concerning further large-scale reduction of offensive strategic weapons.

The two sides expressed the readiness to continue their close consultations and cooperation with the view to strengthening strategic stability and international security.