MOSCOW, July 1: The Chinese and Russian presidents held a summit on Friday aimed at strengthening security in volatile Central Asia and toughening economic ties between these two countries once seen as the West’s main threat in Cold War days.

President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow’s growing bilateral ties with its neighbour, saying: “We have resolved almost all the essential political questions between our two countries.”

“There are vast possibilities for interregional cooperation. We intend to develop our military ties and cooperation between our defence ministries,” he said at the close of talks.

Chinese president Hu Jintao highlighted what he said were the countries’ common security goals.

“We are increasing coordination and cooperation on important regional and international questions, such as guaranteeing stability in Central Asia, the Shanghai group, the form of the United Nations and the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula,” Hu told journalists.

Hu’s four-day visit, which began Thursday, will take him to energy-rich Siberia, where he will meet regional leaders in the city of Novosibirsk.

From there, he will head to a regional security summit in Kazakhstan and then the Group of Eight (G8) summit in Scotland.

But an eye-catcher for analysts was a joint declaration signed by Putin and Hu concerning the “international order in the 21st century,” seen by some Russia media as an effort to repulse Washington’s growing influence, particularly in Central Asia.

The document, distributed on Friday, asserts the “inadmissibility of efforts at monopolising world affairs, the dividing of states into leaders and led, the imposition from outside of models of social development, the application of double standards.”

The Kommersant newspaper said earlier that Moscow’s aim was to draw Beijing into a three-way alliance with the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan, in order to “more effectively resist ‘destabilising external influence’ — meaning the growing influence of the West on the post-Soviet space.”

The two sides have particularly sought to enhance security cooperation through the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

The group, which comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan has made fighting “extremism” in Central Asia a number one goal, in the face of growing Western criticism of the hardline methods used by governments in the region to counter unrest.

The two countries will hold joint large-scale military exercises by the end of this year, Putin said on Friday.

On the economic front, a number of agreements were signed aimed at boosting trade ties.

China has been seeking access to Siberia’s vast untapped oil and gas reserves to fuel future growth, although Russian officials have been more low key on a plan to build an oil pipeline to China, extending from another to the Pacific coast.—AFP