Special report: Year of China in Russia 2007 
Special report: Premier Wen attends SCO meeting, visits four nations

    BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC), will run an editorial on Wednesday lauding the successful conclusion of the "Year of China" in Russia and two years of enhanced exchanges between the two countries.

    Chinese President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed in 2005 to hold the "Year of Russia" in China in 2006 and the reciprocal "Year of China" in Russia in 2007 to increase bilateral cooperation and understanding.

    In the two years about 500 events have furthered mutual understanding and traditional friendship between peoples of China and Russia, improved mutual trust, expanded cooperation in various fields, solidified the foundation for the Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation and publicized the idea to maintain peaceful bilateral ties from generation to generation, the editorial says.

    "Sino-Russian relations are now the best ever," it says.

    In the past two years, senior officials of China and Russia have met frequently and the two sides have improved strategic cooperation in regional and international issues, it says.

    In the first nine months of this year, bilateral trade reached 34.9 billion U.S. dollars and is likely to top 40 billion for the whole year, it says.

    "We are happy to find that cross-border investment has continued to rise and a number of big joint ventures have been started one by one," it says.

    The fast and continuous development of Sino-Russian relations will not only benefit peoples of the two countries but also be conducive to regional and global peace, stability and prosperity as well as creating a world with multi-polar structure and democratic international relations, it says.

    Despite different traditions, ideologies and social systems, the two countries have treated each other with respect and dealt with problems through dialogue under the principle of mutual understanding and compromise, it says.

    "The national year events are a great creation and fine examples of harmonious bilateral ties and mutually beneficial cooperation," it says.