Russian president Vladimir Putin promised China on Thursday that Moscow would maintain its strong ties with Beijing under his successor, Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin, who rules the world's second-biggest oil exporter, says relations with China are at an historic high while Chinese leader Hu Jintao describes Putin as his "good friend".
"Putin and Hu Jintao exchanged sincere wishes of success in future work for the stable development of the two countries in the period after the election of the new Russian president," the Kremlin press office said in a statement.
"Putin underlined that the course of comprehensive development of Russian-Chinese strategic cooperation will be continued in the future," the Kremlin said.
The two leaders meet regularly and Hu was one of the first world leaders to congratulate Medvedev after his March 2 election as Russia's next president.
Comments