1st LD: Putin confident in Russia-China all-round cooperation

Russia and China are "close allies" with their ties running at a very high level and bilateral cooperation expanding steadily, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Xinhua.

"We see each other as close allies, so of course we always listen to each other, by this I mean we keep in mind each other's interests," he said in an hour-long exclusive interview here with Xinhua President Cai Mingzhao ahead of his Saturday state visit to China.

He noted that mutual trust between Moscow and Beijing has reached an unprecedented level and laid a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation, which now covers a variety of areas including trade, energy and infrastructure.

Although Russia and China cannot always reach consensus on difficult issues quickly, they can make them -- however difficult they are -- serve the common purpose of promoting bilateral cooperation, so they are always able to find solutions, added the Russian president. Endi