President Vladimir Putin of Russia and Chinese leader Jiang Zemin met Saturday and restated their opposition to a proposed U.S. missile defence shield, a Russian official said. Talking alongside the 21-member APEC summit, Putin and Jiang "reaffirmed their adherence to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty," which bars the type of shield the US wants to deploy, said Putin's spokesman, Alexei Gromov.

"Both sides confirmed that the ABM Treaty is a cornerstone of the strategic stability," Gromov told reporters.
The opposition to the U.S. missile defense plan has cemented what Russia and China often describe as their "strategic partnership," which replaced the Cold War rivalry they had until the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Bureau Report