Russia, China Say Their Ties Don’t Threaten West

China pledged support for Russia’s battle to halt NATO expansion. Russia stood by China’s territorial claims on Taiwan and Tibet. And after a day of mutual back-scratching, the two powerful neighbors Thursday said their strengthening alliance poses no threat to the West.

A progressive thaw in relations between Beijing and Moscow that followed the collapse of Communist power in Russia has made President Boris N. Yeltsin’s three-day visit here one of the warmest since the 1950s era of solidarity between what were then ideological twins.

Yeltsin and Chinese President and Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin repeatedly sought to calm fears in the United States and Western Europe that their improving relations could create a powerful Asian bloc intimidating to other nations.

As Yeltsin faces a tough reelection battle at home, he has sought to look as menacing as his nationalist opponents on the proposed expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to include the Eastern European countries and former Soviet republics of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact.

The 65-year-old Kremlin leader, who appeared at a brief news conference looking pale and tired after a heavy month of travel and summitry, told journalists he had enlisted China’s full backing in the defiance of NATO.

“Chairman Jiang categorically supported Russia’s view that NATO expansion toward the borders of Russia is impermissible,” Yeltsin said in response to the only question posed to him in the strictly regulated briefing.

For his part, Yeltsin assured Jiang that Russia will always recognize only one China and that Taiwan and Tibet are inalienable parts of that country.

“Yeltsin indicated Russia would fully adhere to the position of ‘one China,’ including Taiwan,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang told reporters after the two leaders met. He said Yeltsin promised Russia would never establish official ties with the island.

The friendly collusion carries little real weight in the disagreements over NATO expansion and China’s disputed territories. But by standing up for each other against the policies of the United States, the two countries could be seeking to pressure Washington into concessions.

NATO membership for countries near Russia has already been quietly suspended--at least until after presidential elections in Russia and the United States. But by brandishing China as an ally in the fight to keep NATO off Russia’s borders, Yeltsin may appear to his wary countrymen to be protecting Russian interests while mending fences with an important neighbor.

The Sino-Russian love fest could raise eyebrows among Western powers, although Clinton administration officials Thursday expressed support for the rapprochement.

“We don’t have any concerns,” said State Department deputy spokesman Glyn Davies in Washington. “. . . To the extent those two nations get along better and have such contacts, we think the region and the world is better off.”

Yeltsin used his two-hour talk with Jiang to raise an issue he had promised the Group of 7 industrial powers that he would carry to China on the group’s behalf: an appeal for Beijing’s inclusion in a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty.

The Russian leader said Jiang had agreed to take part in talks aimed at such a treaty, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen later told reporters that the Beijing leadership’s position had not changed. The Chinese government wants to carry out further test explosions that it claims are necessary for peaceful uses of atomic energy.

Jiang, Yeltsin and the hundreds of aides and officials accompanying each leader for the summit offered champagne toasts on a raft of agreements. The accords included:

* Plans to expand military cooperation through troop exchanges, notice of any troop movements or maneuvers and limits on deployments of military units or equipment along the common border.

* A deal to cooperate in developing peaceful uses of atomic energy, expected to accelerate negotiations for the sale of nearly $3 billion in power-generation and fuel-processing facilities to China over the next decade.

It was unclear after the signing ceremony whether the two countries had managed to complete the centerpiece agreement of the summit, a deal to construct a natural gas pipeline linking Russia’s fuel-rich Siberian region with China.