Prior to a visit to China that begins tomorrow, Putin said Russia attaches great importance to keeping a close and sincere partnership with China, noting Russia will work vigorously to develop bilateral ties.

The Russian president lauded China's remarkable economic achievements, saying China's technology and education have also advanced rapidly along with its ever-increasing international reputation.

There exists broad prospects for bilateral cooperation in the fields of humanities and information exchange, Putin noted.

"Our overall impressions of each other, to a large extent, are based on our past experience," Putin said. "Therefore, it is highly important to let the two peoples know better about the real life in Russia and China, about the achievements they have been making over recent years."

The decision to launch the Year of Russia in China in 2006 and the Year of China in Russia in 2007 will help promote bilateral ties, Putin said.

He said a series of large events over the next two years are aimed at bringing the two peoples closer and enriching the creative cooperation with new ideas and activities, which will be ultimately conducive to promoting the strategic partnership between the two countries.

Russia and China should increase exchanges in science and technology, culture, physical education, youth and tourism, he added, saying that the two sides have already gained experiences in such cooperation and achieved some success.

On his forthcoming visit to Beijing, Putin said he is always very happy to meet with President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders.

Putin expressed the hope that his visit would yield new substantial fruits, which would be conducive to vigorously developing the Russian-Chinese strategic partnership.

During his two-day visit to China, Putin will attend the opening ceremony of the Russian Year.

In October 2004, the two countries decided to launch the Year of Russia in China in 2006 and the Year of China in Russia in 2007.

Russia and China have resolved all their major political problems, including border issues, thus raising their mutual trust to a completely new level, Putin noted.

The active development of Sino-Russian relations has convincingly shown that being pragmatic and holding constructive dialogues is more effective than holding grudges against each other and being endlessly entangled in disputes left over from history, Putin said.

Both countries have carried out active cooperation on the international arena, have closely cooperated with each other in global and regional organizations, and have been partners in coping with terrorism and other existing threats, he said.