President Jiang Zemin of China yesterday put flesh on the friendship treaty signed with Russia earlier this week, saying Beijing would offer Moscow support for its ailing economy.
In a speech at Moscow University, President Jiang said the treaty would not amount to a military alliance, but would include economic co-operation.
"China will consistently support Russia's efforts to revive its economy and defend its rights and interests," he told an audience including President Vladimir Putin of Russia.
The first section of Russia's economy to feel the benefit is likely to be the arms industry. This arises from a basic contrast between the two powers: Russia has an abundance of military hardware, but is lacking currency; China, with a booming economy, has cash but its weapons are outdated.
China already accounts for half Russia's £2 billion annual arms sales, and Chinese officials have presented a formidable shopping list of new weapons.
These include the purchase of several advanced Sovremenny Class destroyers and fighterbombers, seen as a counter to the sale by the US of advanced warships to Taiwan.
Talks between Russia's Prime Minister, Mr Mikhail Kasyanov, and the vice-chairman of China's Central Military Committee, Mr Zhang Wannian, last February are thought to have touched on the sale of one of Russia's most advanced weapons, an Oscar II Class nuclear submarine.
These submarines gained notoriety when one, the Kursk, sank after apparently blowing itself up last year.
However, they remain a formidable weapon, capable of launching cruise missiles with nuclear warheads which can destroy aircraft carrier battle groups.
Advanced naval and air forces would provide a powerful deterrent against the forces which President Bush declared earlier this year would be used to defend Taiwan.
On Monday Mr Putin backed China's view that Taiwan is a renegade province it has the right to take back.
"Russia acknowledges that there is only one China," he said. "Russia opposes any kind of independence for Taiwan."
Mr Jiang yesterday was at pains to say that the new pact was not a military alliance. Nevertheless, one of the anchors for this treaty is their common opposition, reiterated this week, to US plans to deploy an antiballistic missile shield.
This friendship treaty, the first signed between Moscow and Beijing since the Soviet Union agreed a pact with China in 1950, has smothered, but not removed, disputes between Beijing and Moscow. They remain at odds over sections of their common border.
And while trade talks are due to begin on oil pipelines, aerospace and computers, China's £5 billion annual trade with Russia is dwarfed by its £78 billion business with the US.
Gunmen burst into the house of an official in a Chechen village's pro-Moscow administration and killed him, Russian news reports said yesterday.
Interfax news agency said Mr Avadi Bashayev, deputy head of Stary Atagi village, was killed as he prepared for evening prayers on Monday.