The Russian minister will visit the capital of China, Beijing, on December 12-15, where he will take over the function of co-chairman at the session.
According to the interlocutor, Mr. Ivanov intends to discuss the expansion of military and technical cooperation with China, prospects of new projects in the sphere and issues of combat against international terrorism and the settlement of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr. Ivanov is also expected to meet with representatives of Chinese military leadership.
China is Russia's strategic partner in the sphere of military and technical cooperation. Recently Russia has offered a supply of Su-27 aircraft to China and licensed their production in China and sold two 956 destroyers (Sovremenny) equipped with unique 3M-80-E supersonic cruise missiles (Moskit).
At present China is seeking to acquire land offensive systems, which Russia has refused to sell for quite a long time. When the EU intended to lift sanctions on trade in weapons against an opportunity to get the desired weapons was opening up for the latter.
In order to retain access to the Chinese market Russia there would have been no alternative for Russia but to sell the land offensive systems to China in the long run. However, the EU changed its mind all of a sudden, which kept Russia from making a choice - to sell or not to sell the weapons.
The Russian Defense Minister visited China this past April. At that time the parties signed no specific documents on military and technical cooperation, but considered the visit as an important landmark in the development of Russian-Chinese relations. In particular, Mr. Ivanov and Chinese high-ranking officials discussed prospects of interaction in the military sphere and in combat against international terrorism, issues of security in the Asia-Pacific region and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
