On April 28, 2004, Assistant Foreign Minister Li Hui held diplomatic consultations with visiting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Razov. The two sides exchanged views extensively and in depth on such issues as the situations in the Mid-Eastern Europe. Li pointed out that China and Mid-Eastern European countries have maintained long-term and traditional friendly cooperative relations. In recent years with the joint efforts by the two sides, these relations have undergone rapid development. In the new century, The Chinese side would like to continue to strengthen and expand its friendly and mutually beneficial cooperation with countries in this region and upgrade the bilateral relations to a new level. China hopes to see smooth development of Russia-Europe relations.
Razov indicated that Russia has adopted active, pragmatic and targeted policies toward the Mid-Eastern European countries and in recent years, Russia's relations with these countries have witnessed noticeable improvement with good political atmosphere established. Both sides held that China and Russia hold identical views on the situations in Mid-Eastern Europe, and the consultations have enhanced mutual understanding and trust between the two countries and are conducive to deepening development of Sino-Russia strategic cooperative partnership. The two sides were satisfied with the results achieved through the consultations.