China, Russia finally resolve long-disputed border issue

The protocol, signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers in Beijing, added to an existing agreement on their 4,300-kilometer (2,700-mile) boundary, meaning all of the frontier is now set.

“China and Russia have discussed their border for over 40 years. It’s no simple matter that we have now demarcated the border in its entirety,” Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said, after the agreement was signed.

“At a political level, it’s a mutually beneficial, win-win result,” he told reporters at a briefing at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in the Chinese capital.

A bitter rift during the Cold War saw the one-time communist allies fight skirmishes along their border.

For years, both nations deployed enormous tank armies on both sides of the border, and if full-scale war had broken out, it could have led to one of the largest land battles in history.

Recently, however, Russia and China have drawn closer together, motivated partly by a joint ambition to prioritize economic growth.

“As we preserve domestic stability in our respective societies, we have now created a very good external environment for social and economic development, which is of huge benefit to us both,” Yang said.

Yang’s Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, described how the border — once one of the world’s most heavily fortified frontiers — would gradually come to bring the two nations closer. “From a legal point of view we have created the preconditions for the border to become a link of stability, openness, mutual benefit, friendship and cooperation,” Lavrov said.

There were no specific details given to the press about the agreement, but the state-run China Daily newspaper said the agreement involved Russia handing back 174 square kilometers (69.6 square miles) of island territory to China.

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