STRELNA (ST. PETERSBURG). July 17 (Interfax-AVN) - President Vladimir Putin said that the nuclear problem of North Korea and the situation in the Middle East would be discussed at his meeting with Chinese Chairman Hu Jintao.
"We will return once more to certain items on the international agenda that greatly trouble us. We will be speaking about our common approach to the Middle East, to the North Korean problem and certain other issues," he told a Monday news conference in Strelna.
Putin said that bilateral relations would also be discussed.
Russia and China "have developed an exceptionally good relationship, especially in the past few years," he added. "I think that Russia and China had not had a dialogue of such quality or such degree of confidence in many years of their common history. This is precisely what we are going to discuss with Chairman Hu Jintao," he said.
Putin said that the Chinese leader "made an important contribution to the [Monday] discussion."
"Without such countries as India or China it is impossible to effectively resolve present-day problems of development, especially the world economy and finance," he said.