President Boris Yeltsin met his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin, and the Russian leader renewed his call for the two nations to work together to build a "multi-polar world."
BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN: (AP)-President Boris Yeltsin met his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin, and the Russian leader renewed his call for the two nations to work together to build a "multi-polar world."
Yeltsin and Jiang held one-on-one talks before taking part in a five-nation summit in the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan. The summit was intended to improve stability along China's lengthy border with Russia and three former Soviet republics.
After tension between Moscow and Beijing during the Cold War, relations have warmed considerably in this decade, and the leaders of the two countries meet regularly.
Whenever Yeltsin meets top Chinese officials, he calls for strengthening ties as part of an effort to counterbalance U.S. clout in global affairs.
Jiang did not mention the United States by name, but he appeared to refer to Washington when he said that there was a "new display of hegemony relying on force, and it has already drawn concern on the international scene."
The five-nation summit, which included Kyrgyzstan, Kazakstan and Tajikistan, was the fourth such meeting since April 1996, when the leaders first met in Shanghai, China, and agreed on a series of confidence-building measures along the border.
