BEIJING, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian defense minister said Wednesday that China remained a strategic and a privileged military partner for Russia.
Sergei Ivanov, currently on a visit to China, said disputes over the state border, which broke out into armed clashes in the late 1960s, had been resolved and the two countries' defense ministries were making efforts to improve their dialogue.
"I believe relations between Russia and China are strategic," said Ivanov, who is also a deputy prime minister.
Military technological cooperation between the two countries tops $2 billion a year, as China is a major purchaser of Russian weaponry, importing S-300PMU1 air-defense missile systems (NATO codename SA-10 Grumble), combat and transport aircraft, submarines, torpedo boats and land-based radars.
But Ivanov also said the military was pursuing other areas of cooperation.
"At least 500 Chinese military officers are being trained in Russian military colleges," he said Ivanov.
The first bilateral Russia-China military exercises were held last August near Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok and included an amphibious landing in eastern China near Taiwan. A total of 10,000 troops from air, land, and sea forces took part in the eight-days of war games, which led to some concerns emerging in the West.
Russia and China have also been pursuing proactive bilateral cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a six-nation regional security grouping.
Ivanov said that the SCO's defense ministers, who gathered in Beijing for a meeting today, had accepted a Russian proposal to hold anti-terrorism exercises on its territory in 2007.
Continuing to focus on Russia, Ivanov, who took charge of a new military-industry commission earlier this year, said the country would set up a civil agency in 2007 for buying military equipment for the Defense Ministry. Earlier, military structures were in charge of the process.
The minister also reiterated that conscripts would no longer be sent to hot spots.
"In the event of local conflicts, conscript servicemen will not be deployed," he said.
Ivanov said that 60,000 contract personnel were serving and working in the Russian army, and added that the army would largely be transferred to a contract basis by 2008.
