Hu pointed out, "The Sino-Russian strategic partnership of cooperation has entered its second decade, which is a new development stage, and faces important opportunities and broad prospects."

He also made five proposals to promote bilateral relations.

Hu stressed that the next decade is a crucial period for national construction and development of the two countries, and both sides face the same task of promoting development and harmony in domestic policy and strengthening peace and cooperation in foreign relations.

Putin said the holding of the reciprocal theme years is a correct decision made by the two heads of state, which is of strategic significance and has played a positive role in economic and trade exchanges and cultural contacts between the two countries.

Economic cooperation a priority

Economic cooperation is an important element to push Sino-Russian ties forward. China and Russia have enjoyed sound cooperation in such areas as energy development, space flight and aviation, nuclear power, mechanics and hi-tech industry, said Hu, adding that some Chinese enterprises have shown interest in such areas as household appliances, automobile assembly, infrastructure and economic zones in Russia.

"Trade and economic cooperation as well as cooperation in investments remain our priorities," Putin said, adding that "positive trends gaining momentum in these areas are quite satisfactory."

In 2006, Russian-Chinese trade rose 41 percent on the year to $28.6 billion, according to Russia's Economic Development and Trade Ministry. Russian exports to China were $15.7 billion, up 20.7 percent year-to-year, while imports were $12.9 billion, up 77.4 percent. Trade in energy and raw materials is growing most rapidly. According to statistics recently published by China's Economic Development Ministry, the share of raw materials and initially processed production in Russian exports to China rose from 88.7 percent in 2005 to 90.5 percent in 2006.

Russian oil exports totaled 14 million tons last year (about 10 percent of China's total oil imports), of which shipments by rail exceeded 11 million tons. Russian railroads are expected to boost exports to China to 15 million tons in 2007.

Putin noted that trade and economic cooperation with China also maintained good momentum in the past year, with enterprises from both sides becoming more interested in cooperating and increasing their investments. "Russia will support more companies to invest in China" and create conditions for banks to facilitate such investments, said Putin. Cooperation in the energy sector developed smoothly last year, with construction of oil pipelines well underway and cooperation in natural gas being strengthened, Putin said.

He added that cooperation could be expanded in such sectors as power generation, communications, civil aviation and the peaceful use of space. The two countries agreed to deepen cooperation in the areas of the economy, science and technology and security.

The two presidents also witnessed the signing of nine cooperation agreements on space research, customs cooperation and railway cooperation. The parties also signed several agreements on cooperation in the banking sector. In addition, Chinese and Russian entrepreneurs signed 21 trade deals valued at about $4.3 billion.

The Russian president also suggested that regional cooperation is an important part of the overall cooperation between the two countries and there is a huge potential yet to be tapped in this regard. The two countries should boost investment and large-scale cooperation projects in the Russian Far East and Siberian regions. Total Russian investment in China exceeded $600 million at the end of 2006.

"I believe the trade volume of the two countries will surely meet the target of $60-80 billion by 2010 with the deepening bilateral strategic partnership of cooperation," Hu said.