Putin says Russia and China share good development prospects

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China is Russia's strategic partner and the two countries have good development prospects, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference Saturday afternoon in Beijing.

"China is our strategic partner, which is obvious in all respects," Putin told the reporters on the sidelines of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), adding that China is also Russia's largest trading partner.

Earlier the Russian president said that the Russia-China relations, "which are currently at a historically high level, exemplify how state-to-state ties must be constructed these days."

During the three-day forum in Beijing, Putin met with ‍Chinese President Xi Jinping, both hailing the bilateral relations and significance of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Chinese President Xi Jinping holds talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, China, April 26, 2019. /Xinhua Photo

During the press conference, Putin also floated the idea of extending Russia's fast-track naturalization procedure to all citizens of Ukraine.

"We are actually thinking about providing citizenship in a simplified order to all citizens of Ukraine, not only residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk," Putin said.

Putin noted that he wanted to know the position of Ukrainian President-elect Volodymyr Zelensky on the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian people were tired of the conflict, Putin said.

While commenting on Syria's situation, Putin said a full-scale assault against militants in Idlib "is not expedient now" and civilians' security needs to be taken into account.

Putin also slammed the jailing of agent Maria Butina in the United States as "arbitrary," adding that he did not understand why she had been incarcerated.

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