Russia, China agree to form strategic alliance to contain U.S., NATO

MOSCOW -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin agreed on Wednesday to develop a strategic partnership to help build a new world order that would not be dominated by "neointerventionism" and "hegemony."

Yeltsin called for closer relations in an effort to build a "multi-polar" world to counterbalance the power of the U.S. The meeting at the fourth summit of the Shanghai Five at Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, included Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, China, Russia and Tajikistan.

The two leaders said the strategic partnership is ''of principal importance for the formation of a multipolar world'' as opposed to one dominated by the United States, the Russian news agency, Itar-Tass said. Yeltsin and Zemin also discussed the recent talks held in Beijing on the military and technical cooperation between the two countries.

Russian Foreign Ministry Director Igor Ivanov told reporters that China and Russia have agreed to form a strategic alliance. Ivanov said the Russians updated the Chinese on the recent U.S., Russian Start-3 negotiations and the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.

"We regard the ABM treaty as a basis for strategic stability, and we have reached full mutual understanding on this problem with our Chinese colleagues," he said.

Russia and China will hold more talks in the near future, Ivanov said.

The five nations signed a formal declaration pledging to fight separatism and religious extremism.

Mr Jiang said in a speech at the fourth summit of the five nations held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, that they should mobilise resources to "fight destabilising factors to regional security such as religious extremism, national separatism, international terrorism and other international criminal activities."

"Hegemony and the politics of force are on the rise, with new forms of so-called neo-interventionism being resumed," Mr Jiang said.

The Bishkek Declaration was signed at a time when Russia, Kyrgyzstan and China face insurgencies led by Islamic fighters, and Beijing and Moscow have suffered humiliations from the war in Yugoslavia.

The agreement announced opposition to the use of force not approved by the United Nations Security Council in international situations.