Chinese president visits Russia for talks on strategic partnership

MOSCOW (AP) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Russia on Thursday and is expected to bolster ties with Beijing's former rival in hopes of quadrupling their trade turnover to up to $80 billion a year by 2010.
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Hu's trip reflects the strategic importance Beijing places on ties with its giant neighbor. He said his talks with President Vladimir Putin would likely "push our relations of strategic partnership forward,'' according to an interview carried by the ITAR-Tass news agency.

Hu and Putin were to sign a declaration reaffirming their nations' call for respecting international law and establishing a stronger U.N. role internationally, a Kremlin official said on condition of anonymity.

After decades of rivalry, Moscow and Beijing have developed what they call a strategic partnership since the 1991 Soviet collapse. They have pledged their adherence to a "multipolar world,'' a term referring to their opposition to the perceived domination of the United States in global affairs.

The two leaders were also expected to speak out against attempts to monopolize decision-making in international affairs and "impose models of social development from outside,'' the Kremlin official said Thursday.