MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia said yesterday it wanted to extend its military cooperation with neighboring giant China for decades to come, during a visit by the vice chairman of Beijing’s central military commission, news reports said.

Vice chairman Guo Boxiong met Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, with the Russian security chief saying ahead of the formal meeting that military cooperation was “developing vigorously” with China, Interfax reported.

Ivanov said the meeting “should be a building block for the future years and even decades.”

China with India is a principal customer for Russian arms, but most of the contracts until now have concerned aircraft, boats, submarines and munitions.

China in 2002 accounted for more than US$2.5 billion (about two billion euros) worth of orders, more than half of Russia’s export contracts signed that year, totaling US$4.8 billion.

Interfax reported late yesterday that Russia and China had agreed to hold a joint military exercise next year, the first by the two countries since a joint naval exercise in 1999.

“We have ordered our general staff to prepare the joint manoeuvres,” Ivanov was quoted as saying.

“The memorandum (signed on the maneuvers) is the next step in the development of cooperation between our armed forces,” Guo said.

The official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, said the exercise aims to confront new challenges with joint efforts, adding that the two countries’ military general staffs will later discuss the scope of the operation.

The location, date and scale of the exercise was not revealed, it said.

The navies of China and Russia launched their first joint military exercise in October 1999 during the Russian fleet’s visit to China.

Russian-Chinese defense cooperation gained momentum in the 1990s after Western nations imposed an embargo following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Cooperation was cemented in 2000 at a summit meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then Chinese president Jiang Zemin.

In December, Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan visited Russia as part of Beijing’s efforts to increase transfers of Russian military technology and reduce arms deliveries from Russia.