BEIJING, July 1 -- A heatwave is hitting China's diplomacy.

    President Hu Jintao arrived in Moscow yesterday, heralding this summer's diplomatic endeavours.

    Hu is due to travel on to the Kazakh capital Astana for a summit of the Shanghai Co-operative Organization (SCO) leaders on July 5.

    China, along with several other countries of growing importance, has been invited to attend the G8 summit in Scotland. It will be the second time for Hu to attend the G8 gathering; he was invited to the 2003 summit hosted by France.

    Hu's summer tour will leave us with more memorable additions to China's diplomacy this year.

    His visit to Russia comes amid signs of increasingly warm relations between China and Russia.

    As no topic is taboo, the two countries can have a dialogue on any issue.

    The conclusion of the 40-year-old border negotiations and the final agreement on border demarcation between the two countries were a testament to this openness in dialogue.

    The two countries ended a 40-year dispute over their shared border in early June by signing an agreement that confirmed the path of the 4,300 kilometre border.

    Beyond the strategic dimension of China-Russian relations, there were also plenty of non-political issues and developments. The two countries initiated a consultation mechanism on national security and agreed to strengthen energy and investment co-operation.

    China and Russia have built a high-level meeting mechanism, in which their leaders meet at summit level as well as other high levels every year. The visit is also intended to develop economic and trade co-operation between the two countries.

    There have been great strides in bilateral economic co-operation, with bilateral trade hitting US$21 billion last year. The leaders of both sides want to boost bilateral trade to US$60-80 billion by 2010.

    All this progress has been serving as building blocks to make the Sino-Russian relationship closer and firmer.

    The deepening of strategic co-operation in bilateral and international relations will top the agenda when Hu and his Russian host Vladimir Putin hold talks.

    All these will be ascertained in a series of documents in political and economic spheres.

    Hu's ongoing visit epitomizes China's sincerity and effort to find ways to inject new momentum into the relationship between the two "strategic partners."

    The strategic partnership between China and Russia facilitates regional and international stability.

    In Astana, Hu will join leaders from Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to discuss Central Asia and co-operation in the organization.

    At a foreign ministers' meeting in Vladivostok earlier this month, China and Russia agreed to step up their co-operation in the SCO to combat destabilization in Central Asia.

    The organization worked out its last organizational details and was fully operational in January 2004.

    New developments have been seen in the region. The organization needs to be more responsive to the changes.

    Hu will wrap up his summer trip in Scotland. He will hold what is being called an "outreach session" on the world economy and climate change with the G8, together with India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.

    Such talks are an opportunity for China to know more about industrialized nations, and vice versa.

    President Hu will also visit the United States in September to attend the commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations in New York.

    Furthermore, Russian President Putin has signed orders to organize a year of Russia in China in 2006 and a year of China in Russia in 2007, according to Interfax.

    The "summer" of China's diplomacy shows a more open China, which has matured to deal with the rest of the world.

(Source: China Daily)