Russia hails China ties, defies Western critics

BEIJING - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday hailed ties with huge neighbour China as a key factor in global security, and said the sometimes uneasy neighbours were determined to boost cooperation even if it unnerved the West.
Medvedev, sworn in earlier this month, has inherited a country with a booming economy and international ambitions, but locked in disputes with its Western partners, which he implied were suspicious of Moscow's links with China.
His speech came a day after the two jointly condemned U.S. plans to set up Eastern European bases for a missile defence system, although Washington shrugged off the remarks.
Analysts have said that this maiden foreign trip to ex-Soviet Kazakhstan and China was intended to demonstrate that Russia had other allies to counterbalance strained relations with Europe and the United States and will pursue a balanced foreign policy.
"[Chinese President] Hu Jintao and I agreed that Russian-Chinese cooperation has become a major factor of global security, without which important decisions are impossible," he told students at the elite Peking University.
"I will say frankly not everyone likes our strategic co-operation but we understand it is in the interests of our people whether or not others like it."
Medvedev won a standing ovation for his speech, which was lavishly scattered with quotes from Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Taoist sage Laozi.
Uranium enrichment
Moscow is also annoyed by what it sees as Western attempts to contain its diplomatic ambitions and keep Russian companies out of lucrative markets. It is keen to make China a potential ally in economic as well as strategic spheres.
"Both our countries are actively preparing for a powerful leap into the future ... on the basis of equal access into the ranks of leaders of the global economic development," he said.
"Both states strive to raise the living standards of their people, make families feel confident in their future."
During Medvedev's trip a deal will be sealed for Russia to build and supply a $1 billion uranium enrichment plant in China, which may raise hackles in the West.
But the nuclear cooperation, like the apparently united front on strategic issues, masks a sometimes uneasy relationship between the two giant neighbours, who have long jostled for influence in Central Asia and further afield.
CHINA and the Soviet Union split over the leadership of the Communist world in the early 1960s and fought a series of small military border skirmishes in the late 1960s.
They restored friendly relations after the Soviet Union collapsed but some in the Kremlin are still opposed to Moscow cozying up to its increasingly powerful neighbour -- and there are some practical stumbling blocks in the road to better ties.
Although Beijing is desperate to diversify energy supplies away from oil and gas shipped in to its coast, and Moscow wants to widen the circle of buyers for its rich resources, the two have been squabbling for years over planned pipelines.
They have yet to get off the drawing board because the two sides are unable to agree prices, and as crude markets soar, a deal looks no more likely in the near future. Russian diplomats said such deals would not be on the main agenda for this visit.