YELTSIN TO PRESS FOR GREATER TRADE WITH CHINA.

A Russian government staffer said yesterday that military-technical cooperation will be on Boris Yeltsin’s agenda when he visits China April 24-26. But the official indicated that Moscow sees military dealings as only one part of a much more comprehensive trade relationship with China that the Kremlin hopes will also include a number of lucrative energy projects. He suggested that Russian supplies of energy-related equipment could total up to $6 billion this year alone. (Interfax, April 3)

The official’s remarks come as the chairman of the Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Qiao Shi, continues a six-day visit to Russia. Following Qiao’s meeting with Boris Yeltsin April 1, the Russian president described relations with China as one of Moscow’s foreign policy priorities and said that fifteen documents are expected to be signed during his trip to Beijing. Yeltsin added that Moscow also wanted to initiate new talks on marking the joint Sino-Russian border and on pulling troops back from the border region. He reiterated that Moscow views Taiwan as an inalienable part of China and Chinese-Taiwanese relations as an internal Chinese affair. Qiao returned the favor by describing the Chechen conflict as a domestic Russian matter. Qiao also held talks with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and with the chairman of the upper house of the Russian parliament, Yegor Stroyev. An agreement was reached on the establishment of permanent interparliamentary contacts. (Itar-Tass & Xinhua, April 1)

Yeltsin Officially Registered.