Yeltsin Plans to Sign New Amity Pact With China

BEIJING —  Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s visit to China later this week is intended to bring Russian-Chinese relations to “a completely new stage,” Ambassador Igor Rogachev said Monday.

During Yeltsin’s three-day visit, which begins Thursday, the two sides are expected to sign a declaration outlining “a long-term program of activities . . . in bilateral and international spheres, strengthening the friendly character of Russian-Chinese ties,” Rogachev told a news conference at the Russian Embassy here.

The two sides also may sign as many as 20 other agreements in “trade, economic, scientific, technical, cultural and many other fields,” he said. One likely agreement concerns cooperation on construction of a nuclear power plant.

The agreements will include measures to further reduce military tension on the 2,750-mile Sino-Russian border, he said. One step already agreed upon, he said, is a mutual pullback of troops, aimed at creating, by decade’s end, a largely demilitarized, 124-mile-wide belt. He declined to provide further details.

The easing of military tensions has been reflected in a growing Russian willingness to sell weapons to China, a development that has concerned Washington and other Western capitals. China’s purchase of 24 SU-27 jet fighters has been one of the most significant of these deals.

Rogachev bluntly defended the weapons sales. “We need hard currency,” he said. “We have a lot of economic troubles in our country. I would like to repeat that, in the past, we sold some arms and ammunition in the world market, and we shall do it, of course, now and in future.”

He denied that by improving relations with Beijing, his government is playing a “China card.”

“The Cold War is over,” he said. “So we do hope that there will be no playing cards in future. We are not going to play a Chinese card against anybody, and we hope that nobody will play a Russian card or an American card or any card.”

Yeltsin is due to meet Chinese President Yang Shangkun, Communist Party General Secretary Jiang Zemin and Premier Li Peng. Rogachev predicted that the meetings will go smoothly despite sharp ideological differences between Yeltsin, who rose to power on the strength of his anti-Communist credentials, and Beijing’s hard-line Communist leaders.

“One of the main features of the new relationship between Russia and China is that these relations are and will be free of any ideology,” he said. “We have agreed about non-interference in the internal affairs of each other. This major principle will be put down in the declaration of principles. . . . I have no doubt that there will be very good personal relations between President Yeltsin and Chinese leaders.”

While describing arms sales to China as “an integral part of our general relationship,” Rogachev played down their strategic importance. He said that Moscow does not expect these sales to poison its relations with Washington.