Jiang, Yeltsin End Dispute Over Border

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, today signed a breakthrough statement ending a dispute over border demarcation that has soured ties since the days of the czars.

The declaration lays to rest wrangles over the practical implementation of a 1991 accord that mapped out the entire 2,600-mile frontier.

Border tensions have flared on and off for several hundred years between the giant neighbors.

Today’s agreement was the main accomplishment of the fifth Sino-Russian summit, which also focused on ways to boost stalled trade ties.

Experts have been arguing over where to put some of the markers on the eastern frontier stretching in an arc from Mongolia to the Sea of Japan.

The declaration hailed the border demarcation as “a good example of a fair and rational solution of issues inherited from the past.”

It also referred to separate agreements on regional and international issues.

At a signing ceremony in the Great Hall of the People, Chinese Vice Premier Li Lanqing and Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Boris Y. Nemtsov also signed three documents on economic and technical cooperation, including one on oil and gas cooperation.

Jiang, who returned victorious last week from a Sino-U.S. summit in Washington, shook hands and exchanged bearhugs with Yeltsin at the steps of the Great Hall on the fringes of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Yeltsin looked well, though he walked stiffly.