Putin briefs China on his pro-Western policies

Putin briefs China on his pro-Western policies

Richard Balmforth, Reuters, Beijing

Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking to justify his pro- Western policies to a Chinese audience, said on Tuesday it would be "absolutely counter-productive" to seek confrontation with the United States.

Speaking to students at Peking University at the end of a visit to China, Putin said the United States was "our biggest trade partner, our partner in the anti-terrorism coalition and our joint action in this direction is quite effective".

"Our views on key world questions do not always coincide," he said, referring to Washington, as Chinese President Jiang Zemin listened from his seat nearby.

But Putin immediately added: "We consider it absolutely counter-productive to lead relations into the field of confrontation."

"On those questions where, in our opinion, our views do not coincide, we will of course defend our national interests." For the last few years, China and Russia have been trying to build a new strategic partnership based partly on opposition to U.S. dominance of world affairs and to international humanitarian intervention within another country's borders.

But Russia has leaned towards a more pro-Western foreign policy, even engaging with NATO, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush cemented a deepening relationship when they met at Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas in November last year.

China too has been warming up to Washington. In October, Jiang went to Crawford and China approached NATO to seek a strategic dialog for the first time in the alliance's 53-year history.

Putin reaffirmed that Russia remained opposed to the enlargement of NATO decided at a summit in Prague last month.

But he said Moscow was satisfied with the work accomplished in the NATO-Russia Council, which he said Russia had joined to tackle common global security threats.

"We react negatively (to NATO enlargement) because we do not consider that simply mechanical enlargement will strengthen international security," he said.

At the same time, he said, there was no need for Russia to set up any buffer zone against the three ex-Soviet Baltic countries which will be joining the alliance because they did not represent a "hostile environment" to Russia.

Putin said new security threats had emerged in the form of international terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and political and religious extremism.

"This was always there, but now this sickness has taken on a global form throughout the world," he said.

Beijing and Moscow have both backed Bush's war on terrorism, partly in the hope of garnering support for their own campaigns against Muslim separatists they consider terrorists.

But both have strong reservations about possible U.S. plans for military action against Iraq and are keen to strengthen the United Nations' role and fiercely oppose U.S. unilateralism.

"Disregarding international agreements is absolutely inadmissible, as is the practice of double standards and attempts to try to solve disputes unilaterally," said Putin.

"And here our external approaches and priorities coincide absolutely with those of China," he said. "We are not just friendly neighbors. We are equal and interested partners."

Putin left China on Tuesday and headed for India where he is to meet Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during a three-day visit.