BEIJING Oct. 14, 2004 — China and Russia settled the last of their decades-old border disputes Thursday during a visit to Beijing by President Vladimir Putin, signing an agreement fixing their 2,700-mile-long border for the first time. Posted on 10/15/2004 4:48:44 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
BEIJING Oct. 14, 2004 — China and Russia settled the last of their decades-old border disputes Thursday during a visit to Beijing by President Vladimir Putin, signing an agreement fixing their 2,700-mile-long border for the first time.
The struggle over border areas resulted in violent clashes in the 1960s and 1970s, when strained Sino-Soviet relations were at their most acrimonious, feeding fears abroad that the conflict could erupt into nuclear war.
Beijing and Moscow had reached agreements on individual border sections as relations warmed in the past decade. But a stretch of river and islands along China's northeastern border with Russia's Far East had remained in dispute.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, signed the final agreement at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the event.
"We have found a solution to the border issue which allow us to have closer cooperation with regards to development of natural resources, environmental protection and economic issues," Putin said.
The two governments didn't immediately release details of the final agreement.
However, in a joint statement, Hu and Putin said the accord would "create more favorable conditions for the long-term, healthy and stable development of China-Russia strategic partnership of cooperation."
"It means an important contribution to the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region and the world at large," it said.
The border tug-of-war reaches back centuries to the competition for territory as imperial China and czarist Russia expanded toward each other.
At one point, the Soviet Union was believed to have as many as 700,000 troops on the border, facing as many as 1 million soldiers from China's People's Liberation Army.
Behold, the Trans-Asian Axis. The World War Three Axis ....
Who gave in? Nukes aside, I wonder who would win that war? I'd have to vote for China by a wide margin.
Green line is disputed border area. A shorter, 50-kilometer (31-mile)-long western border between Kazakhstan and the westernmost tip of Mongolia is still under negotiation (hidden by the 'M' in MONGOLIA in the pik).
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