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China envoy in Russia seeks calm on border issue

MOSCOW: China's ambassador to Moscow called on Monday for calm over the demarcation of his country's long border with Russia on the eve of a visit to Beijing by President Boris Yeltsin.

The governor of Russia's far eastern Primorsky region has said several times that Moscow should not cede any land to China, and a Russian border demarcation official quit this month over similar complaints.

But Ambassador Li Fenglin told Interfax news agency in an interview there were no problems over the demarcation issue and made clear Beijing would not be drawn into any confrontation.

"It is time to stop all the fuss about the demarcation of the Chinese-Russian border," the ambassador said.

"Everything has been weighed up, all the details have been worked out justly and rationally taking into account the interests of both sides."

Yeltsin arrives in China on Wednesday for a three-day visit during which he is to sign up to 10 documents and a political declaration defining principles of bilateral ties and common views on international issues and regional security.

Yeltsin and the leaders of three other former Soviet states, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, will also sign a pact with China on confidence-building measures along their common border.

The pact has been soured by Primorsky governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko, who denounced as unjust the demarcation of the 3,700-km (2,300-mile) border provided for in a 1991 treaty and now at its final stage.

Yeltsin has blasted Nazdratenko for stirring emotions over a small sliver of land in the far east and said Moscow will go ahead with the demarcation as planned.

Interfax quoted China's ambassador as saying he saw no problems over demarcation in the Primorsky region and that he had reacted "completely calmly" to Nazdratenko's remarks.

But he said such comments could serve people who did not want ties between Russia and China to improve, and added: "Governor Yevgeny Nazdratenko cannot fail to understand that his comments were a call to confrontation."

Moscow and Beijing, former rivals for domination of the communist world, fought border clashes in the late 1960s but have improved their relations in the last few years.-Reuter