"The answer is a definite no. We are not afraid and we are not concerned about it. Sooner or later it will happen, I am sure," he said.
The Russian minister stressed that Russia maintains the leading position on the Chinese arms market and knows about the demands of the Chinese market of new military equipment better than any other country.
"We know better than anybody else the capacity and demands of the Chinese arms market and, being a market economy country, we are not afraid of the competition on this market," Mr. Ivanov emphasized.
The minister pointed out with regret that Russia is not a member of the European Union, therefore it cannot be part of the decision-making on this issue. "We are not involved in this issue, but we are aware of it and follow the developments very closely," the minister underlined.
"The embargo was imposed solely according to political reasons," he added, mentioning at the same time that the Russian side is aware of the lack of unity among the EU members on this issue.
According to Sergei Ivanov, the Russian-Chinese military-technical cooperation has a mature and advanced character, and it fully reflects the level of relations between the two countries in the political sphere.
Mr. Ivanov pointed out that during the 11th meeting of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental committee on military-technical cooperation, the sides summed up the results of the work in 2004. Both countries deemed the results positive, the Russian minister said.
"Our relations are built on the basis of partnership, respect, non-interference in internal affairs and observance of all international legal norms," Mr. Ivanov emphasized, he characterized the 2004 as the year "of positive developments in the relations between Russia and China."
"The quantity of official and working exchanges sooner or later transforms into the quality of these relations," Mr. Ivanov underlined.
He said that the ministers discussed the "Taiwan issue" during the talks in Beijing.
"We regularly discuss this issue during our meetings, and we do not keep secrets from china in that respect," Mr. Ivanov said. He also added that the Russian position on this issue is certain and does not bear an ambiguous character.
"We follow closely the development of the situation around Taiwan and stand against separatism," the minister said.
He said that Russia is also against the development of any kind of "road maps" in relation to the Taiwan issue.
"We already have a "road map" on the Middle East issue and we must implement it first before we start fantasizing about other "road maps," Sergei Ivanov stressed.
