RUSSIAN, CHINESE PRESIDENT DISCUSS EXPANDING COOPERATION

President Vladimir Putin told Chinese President Hu Jintao during their informal meeting at Putin's summer residence in Novoe Ogarevo that Hu's visit to Russia "will give a new impulse" to bilateral relations.

 Putin noted progress in improving bilateral political and economic relations, saying, "especially positive dynamics between our two countries should be boosted by cooperation in the military sector". Putin noted that in August the two countries are to hold joint military exercises. Hu said that Chinese-Russian relations are developing in a "new historical epoch, when the border dispute between our two states has been resolved." On 1 July, Putin and Hu were to hold talks almost all day at the Kremlin and sign a declaration about the 21st-century world order, including provisions "on the inadmissibility of claims on a monopoly in world affairs, division of states into leading and led ones, and the imposing of one's own model of sociopolitical development". Speaking to Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov on 30 June, Hu said that China wants to increase its investment in the Russian economy substantially and boost bilateral trade to $80 billion.