Cooperation Pact Signed by Russia, China

China, Russia and three Central Asian states entered into a mutual nonaggression pact Friday that all parties said will help them build a powerful common market from the Arctic Circle to the South China Sea.

The military confidence-building measures agreed to by the two biggest powers in Asia along with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are aimed at reducing tensions and ending a history of skirmishes along their remote and rugged borders. All five neighbors praised the accord as the start of a new era of cooperation.

The crowning event of Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s three-day official visit to China was laden with the suggestion of an emerging Asian alliance, a theme that the Kremlin leader has played to his political advantage both at home and abroad.

At Friday’s signing ceremony in a cavernous hall of the Shanghai Exhibition Center, the five leaders cast their new treaty as a model for other Asian-Pacific powers to follow.

“For the first time in this part of the world, countries are making concrete commitments not to use force or the threat of force against each other and declining to seek unilateral military advantage,” Yeltsin proclaimed after conclusion of the treaty.

Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, hailed the agreement as unique in its broad geographic scope, uniting countries spanning the vast Asian continent and more than a quarter of the world’s people.

The leader of Kyrgyzstan, Askar A. Akayev, described the accord as the first step toward a broad security and economic alliance.

The five presidents reiterated the assurances expressed by Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Yeltsin earlier this week that their intensifying efforts at bolstering cooperation in the region are not intended to threaten other countries.

Yeltsin came to Shanghai on the last day of his long-delayed China visit to tour the booming Pudong business district that is a showcase of economic reforms in this Communist country that has drawn 10 times more U.S. foreign investment than Russia.

Gennady A. Zyuganov, Russian Communist Party challenger in the June 16 presidential race, had sarcastically observed in Moscow that Yeltsin needed to visit Shanghai to “see how economic reform is done properly.”

Yeltsin took a slap back at his rival after the Pudong visit.

“What I’ve seen so far is very impressive,” he said of Shanghai’s building and business boom, while dismissing the notion that China’s economic advances had anything to do with ideology.

“Our Communists of the Zyuganov ilk are fanatics, whereas the people here are pragmatists,” Yeltsin quipped, grimacing at the mention of his chief electoral foe.

While Yeltsin still faces popular discontent at home over the slow pace of economic recovery, events such as his visit to China have muted criticism that the post-Soviet Kremlin has lost international clout by favoring Western partnerships over former Communist allies.

Slowed by ill health, the 65-year-old Yeltsin is engaged in a fierce reelection struggle and has lately sought to repair ties with neighbors such as the other ex-Soviet republics and China.

During talks in Beijing before touring this eastern port city, Yeltsin pledged his support for “one China,” including the disputed territories of Tibet and Taiwan.

Jiang reciprocated in the blooming Sino-Russian friendship by siding with Yeltsin in vehement objection to a proposed eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Though visibly fatigued by a busy schedule of summits and campaigning over the past month, Yeltsin managed a short foray into the crowd of curious onlookers gathered outside the hotel tower where he and his entourage were staying.

Hundreds of Shanghai residents erupted in applause when the burly Siberian halted his motorcade to step out, shake hands, blow kisses and smile for the cameras.

Accords such as Friday’s are likely to be interpreted in Russia as a reemergence of Moscow as the leading power in Asia.

Much of the agreement on border demilitarization has yet to be worked out in detail, but the pact calls on the participants to:

* Refrain from menacing deployments of troops or artillery along the border and to reorient any weapons targeted on signatory countries.

* Inform fellow signatories about troop movements and hardware deployments within 60 miles of any common border.

* Invite observers from the signatory countries for any sizable maneuvers.

* Allow immediate access to naval patrol boats responding to natural disasters or needing to transit territorial waters for repairs.