Putin reassures China over relations with West

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia -- After moving to build closer ties with the United States and NATO, Russian President Vladimir Putin has turned to the East where Moscow's "strategic partner," China, has been watching Russia's honeymoon with the West.

Putin met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in St. Petersburg on Thursday on the eve of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. The group, dominated by Russia and China, includes four former Soviet republics in Central Asia -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Summit participants expect to sign the group's charter, making it a full-fledged international organization.

Putin hailed the group's role in global security, saying it could help make Russia, China, United States and Europe parts of one "arc of stability." The Russian-Chinese "strategic partnership" was cemented by their joint opposition to what both perceived as the threat of U.S. global domination.

China has become the No. 1 customer for the beleaguered Russian defense industry, which nearly ground to a halt without orders from the cash-strapped Defense Ministry, purchasing billions of dollars worth of missiles, fighter jets, destroyers and submarines in recent years.

Welcoming Jiang at the historic Yusupov Palace, Putin said that the two nations have "big plans" for expanding military cooperation.

Russia's cooperation with China culminated in a treaty Putin and Jiang signed last July, the first such document since 1950, when Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong created a Soviet-Chinese alliance in the 1960s.