On the afternoon of September 17, 2004, Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui held a briefing to Chinese and foreign journalists as well as information officers of foreign embassies to China at the invitation of the International Press Center (IPC), making an introduction of Premier Wen Jiabao's upcoming official visit to Kyrgyz Republic, attendance at the 3rd Meeting of Prime Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), official visit to the Russian Federation and attendance at the 9th Regular Meeting of Prime Ministers of China and Russia, while taking questions from the journalists. Deputy Director General Liu Jianchao of the Information Department of Chinese Foreign Ministry hosted the briefing.

Li Hui said, "The visit by Premier Wen Jiabao is a very important diplomatic event. We believe that this visit will boost the development of the strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia, deepen the good-neighborly and friendly relations of cooperation between China and Kyrgyz Republic, and play an important role in promoting the further development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the future."

Speaking of the forthcoming visit to the Russian Federation and attendance at the 9th Regular Meeting of Prime Ministers of China and Russia by Premier Wen, Li Hui said that this would be the first visit to Russia by Premier Wen after he took the premiership and also the 9th Regular Meeting of Prime Ministers of China and Russia. Currently China-Russia relations are in an important development period and showing the following features:

First, the mutual political trust between the two countries is being continuously enhanced. The two sides have been showing mutual understanding and mutual support for each other on issues related to their respective national sovereignty and territorial integrity, such as those on Taiwan, Tibet and Chechnya. The recent hostage-taking event in North Ossetia of Russia inflicted heavy casualties of human lives. Both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao of China sent letters of condolences to leaders of Russia, and provided some assistance. China also provided moral and material support for Russia's fight against terrorism. All these have shown the cooperative relations between China and Russia.

Second, economic and trade cooperation between the two countries has yielded fruitful results. The bilateral trade volume has been on the rise. In 2003, the trade volume between China and Russia added up to USD 15.7 billion, the figure stood at USD 11.7 billion from January to July this year and the volume is expected to exceed USD 20 billion by the end of this year, creating a new historic high. Economic cooperation between the two countries is also being continuously enhanced, with mutual investment cooperation being increasingly active. In the past May, China and Russia held a meeting in the Far East of Russia on the promotion of regional investment and the Chinese delegation was headed by Director Ma Kai of the State Development and Reform Commission. At the meeting, the two sides concluded 12 agreements of intention of investment cooperation on intensive cooperation.

Third, the two countries have kept close coordination and cooperation in international affairs. The two sides share identical or similar positions on many major international issues, including the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, the issue of Iraq and the role of the United Nations (UN). Exchanges and cooperation between the two countries are constantly expanding in the fields of humanities, education, culture, science and technology. From September 11 to 15, 2004, Chinese State Councilor Chen Zhili visited Russia and, together with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, co-chaired the Fifth Session of the Cooperation Committee on Education, Culture, Health and Sports between the Chinese government and the Russian government. During the meeting, the two sides made profound explorations on cooperation in the field of humanities, and reached a lot of consensus on cooperation in education, health, culture, sports, broadcasting, television, movie and archives. The visit by State Councilor Chen was also purported to make preparations for the 9th Regular Meeting of Prime Ministers of China and Russia, i.e. Premier Wen and his Russian counterpart.

During the visit, Premier Wen will, together with leaders of Russia, take stock of the results of cooperation in various fields over the past year, proceeding from the strategic perspective and the overall situation, exchange views and conduct in-depth explorations on comprehensively deepening the China-Russia strategic and cooperative partnership and promoting pragmatic cooperation in all areas between the two countries. They will also exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest.

Premier Wen will meet with President Putin, which will be an important meeting. At the same time, he will also hold the 9th Regular Meeting of Prime Ministers of China and Russia with Russian Prime Minister Fradkov. The latter meeting will be focusing on the following topics: 1) Reviewing the results of cooperation between the two countries in various fields over the past year, including the existing problems. 2) Identifying the next-step priority cooperation projects and objectives of the two countries. 3) Exploring new channels and means of expanding the economic and trade cooperation. Of course, Premier Wen will also exchange views with the Russian side on major international issues. In addition, Premier Wen will meet with Chairman Sergey Mironov of the Council of Federation of Russia and Chairman Boris Gryzlov of the Russian Duma, and deliver a speech to personages from all walks of life of Russia. There is another important item in the schedule of Premier Wen's visit to Russia, that is to hold conversations with personages from the scientific and technological community of Russia.

Both China and Russia attaches great importance to the visit and are making active preparations from a variety of aspects. We believe that this visit will play a very important role in the development of the China-Russia strategic and cooperative partnership and the pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in all areas. Moreover, Premier Wen's visit is also purported to make important preparations for the meeting between heads of state of the two countries in Beijing in October. During the visit by Premier Wen, the two sides will sign a joint communiqué and other documents on bilateral cooperation.

As to Premier Wen's upcoming official visit to Kyrgyz Republic and attendance at the 3rd Meeting of Prime Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Li Hui said that this would be the first visit to Kyrgyz Republic by a Chinese premier over ten years since Premier Li Peng of the State Council of China visited the Kyrgyz Republic in 1994. Therefore both sides attach great importance to Premier Wen's visit. The Kyrgyz Republic is an important neighbor for China. The two countries share a common borderline of over 1000 kilometers. Since the independence of Kyrgyz Republic 13 years ago, relations between China and Kyrgyz Republic have been developing smoothly. Leaders of the two countries are enjoying good working relations and have established close personal friendship. The two countries have kept close exchanges with each other. In 2003, the two countries signed the treaty on good-neighborliness, friendship and cooperation, which fixed the relations between the two countries in the form of a legal document.

The reason why China and the Kyrgyz Republic have maintained close and friendly relations of cooperation is that the two countries, as neighbors of each other, have enjoyed a history of over 1000 years of friendly exchanges. Nowadays, both countries are aspiring for development and longing for good bilateral relations as a good neighboring environment. Apart from the good political relations, the economic and trade relations between the two counties are also developing well. Last year, the bilateral trade volume added up to USD 314 million with a growth margin of 55%. From January to August this year, the figure reached USD 307 million. With the concerted efforts of the two sides, it is possible that the figure will exceed USD 500 million by the end of this year. The two sides have also scored considerable achievements in economic cooperation and mutual investment. China has established a large paper manufacturer in the Kyrgyz Republic with an investment of over RMB100 million.

Furthermore, the two countries have also conducted close cooperation in the security area. Both China and the Kyrgyz Republic are direct victims of terrorism and both are facing the arduous task of combating terrorism, separatism and extremism. It is believed that Premier Wen's visit to the Kyrgyz Republic will surely further enhance the mutual political trust, deepen the mutual support on issues of vital importance and boost the pragmatic cooperation between the two countries in such fields as economy and trade, so as to inject new vitality into China-Kyrgyz good-neighborly and friendly relations of cooperation.

During his stay in the Kyrgyz Republic, Premier Wen will meet with Kyrgyz President Akayev, Speaker Altay Borubayev of the People's Representatives Assembly of Parliament and Speaker Abdygany Erkebaev of the Legislative Assembly of Parliament, and hold talks with Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev. The two sides will sign an important cooperation document, i.e. the Long-Term Cooperation Program from 2004 to 2014 between China and the Kyrgyz Republic, which is about the plan of cooperation between the two countries for 10 years to come. Since the signature of the Good-Neighborly Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation between China and the Kyrgyz Republic in June 2002, the Kyrgyz side proposed to sign a long-term cooperation program between the two countries to implement the spirit of the treaty and boost cooperation in various fields. After a long period of preparations, it is now the ripe time to sign the plan. The program will encompass a detailed plan for cooperation between the two countries in the fields of politics, security, economy and trade, transportation, energy and humanities, and determine the priorities, orientation and projects of cooperation between the two sides. It will incorporate the mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries into a more standardized and more effective track and is therefore of great significance to the long-term and steady development of the good-neighborly and friendly relations of cooperation between China and the Kyrgyz Republic.

With regard to the 3rd Meeting of Prime Ministers of Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) slated in Bishkek, Li Hui said that this meeting would be a meeting for heads of government of the SCO after it concluded the initial stage and enters the new period of comprehensive cooperation. The SCO has concluded its initial stage with the establishment of its Secretariat in the past January and has been ushered into a new period, when its major development objective is to engage in pragmatic cooperation in economy, trade and security. In June this year, the SCO convened its summit in Tashkent, when it determined its future development orientation and work objectives. This SCO Prime Ministers' meeting in Bishkek has its main task as implementing the spirit of the Tashkent Summit held in the past June and exploring how to expand and deepen the cooperation in economy, security and humanities and tabling new measures. Moreover, the meeting will also study the operations of the permanent branches of the SCO, and adopt and improve a series of documents on the organizational and financial systems of the SCO.

Major activities during the meeting will be comprised of large-range talks, small-range talks and the joint meeting between prime ministers of the 6 countries and Kyrgyz President Akayev of the host country. Premier Wen will also hold bilateral meetings with Prime Ministers of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to exchange views with them on bilateral relations and regional cooperation. He will also meet with SCO Secretary General Zhang Deguang and Executive Chairman Casymov. V. T. of the SCO Regional Anti-Terrorism Structure (RATS).

This 3rd SCO Prime Ministers' Meeting will see the signing of a series of documents, including the joint communiqué, and approve the Plan for Measures to Implement the Multilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation Program. In 2004, the SCO signed the SCO Multilateral Economic and Trade Cooperation Program. This SCO Prime Ministers' Meeting will approve the plan for measures to implement the program, which is in effect a guideline for carrying out the multilateral economic and trade cooperation. The guideline will encompasses 130 cooperation projects in 11 areas, including the fields of energy, power, transportation, agriculture, telecommunications and environmental protection, and define the implementation schedule and leading organization of the projects. The signing of the document will be the most important achievement of this Prime Ministers' Meeting in economic and trade cooperation.

When taking questions from journalists regarding the energy cooperation between China and Russia, Li Hui responded that energy cooperation is an important part of the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries, and occupies an unusual position in the bilateral economic and trade exchanges. In 1994, Russia put forward the proposal of cooperating with China in the field of energy, including oil and the construction of pipelines. Over the past 10 years or so, the two sides have done a lot of work focusing on the construction of oil pipelines, which is also the central part of the cooperation, and made some prior input. Russia once formulated an oil development strategy up to 2020, in which it explicitly decided to construct an oil pipeline leading to China. Recently China also received a lot information indicating that Russia will stick to that decision. China is in need of oil and gas, and China is the largest and most stable market. This is the most reliable basis for energy cooperation between China and Russia. Despite the outstanding issue of pipeline, the energy cooperation between the two sides has been under way, mainly through railway transportation. We believe that Premier Wen's visit will give a great impetus to China-Russia economic and trade cooperation, including the energy cooperation.

While answering questions on China-Russia counter-terrorism cooperation, Li Hui said that both China and Russia are victims of international terrorism. Therefore the two sides share common positions and interests in combating international terrorism. Over the past several years, the two sides have conducted close cooperation on counter-terrorism, both bilateral and multilateral. Within the framework of bilateral cooperation, first, the two sides share identical positions, opinions and views on fighting terrorism. Both sides are against terrorism in any form and uphold that international terrorism that poses a threat to security of mankind should be severely combated, and both sides oppose double standards on the counter-terrorism issue. Second, China and Russia have established corresponding consultation mechanism, including the creation of the working group on anti-terrorism consultations, which has conducted 4 rounds of consultations. During the consultations, the two sides held in-depth discussions on various issues related to counter-terrorism and coordinated their stances. Within the framework of multilateral cooperation, the two countries have engaged in effective cooperation within the framework of the SCO. A major task of the SCO is to promote security cooperation among its member states. To that end, the SCO signed the Shanghai convention on fighting "three forces", its member states signed bilateral agreements on the same aspect, and China and Russia have conducted very good cooperation on counter-terrorism within the framework of the SCO. Furthermore, the government departments of both countries are also keeping cooperative relations at the ministerial level. During his visit to Russia, Premier Wen will definitely talk about counter-terrorism when he exchanges views with Russian leaders on the development of bilateral relations.