China-Russia ties ‘sealed by blood’

Russian President Dmitry Med-vedev arrived in northeast China for an official visit yesterday saying that Moscow’s ties with Beijing were “sealed by blood” spilled fighting a common enemy.

Mr Medvedev kicked off a three-day visit to the world’s second biggest economy by visiting the former Russian city of Dalian and paying respects to fallen Russian soldiers who died defending the port from Japanese invaders. “Friendship with China is Russia’s strategic choice, it’s a choice that was sealed by blood years ago,” Mr Medvedev told Russian and Chinese war veterans.

“The friendship between Russian and Chinese peoples cemen-ted by the military events will be indestructible and do good for our future generations.

“For Russia and China, the memory of those events is sacred.”

Before meeting the veterans and Li Min, the 73-year-old daughter of Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, the Kremlin chief laid flowers at the monument commemorating the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-05 and World War II.

Accompanied by top energy officials and business tycoons, Mr Medvedev is slated to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing today and oversee the signing of a raft of agreements including energy deals.

Russia has been in talks with China, the world’s largest energy consumer, over gas deliveries.

Moscow, which has been watching China’s formidable economic growth with a mixture of awe and unease, is also eager to attract more Chinese investment.

Relations between Moscow and Beijing – once bitter foes during the Cold War – have a turbulent history.

The two nations position themselves as counterweights to US global dominance and the Kremlin likes to call its ties with Beijing a “strategic partnership”.