Russia hails China ties, defies Western critics

By Oleg Shchedrov

BEIJING (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday hailed ties with huge neighbor China as a key factor in global security, and said the sometimes uneasy neighbors were determined to boost cooperation even if it unnerved the West.

Medvedev, sworn in earlier this month, has inherited a country with a booming economy and international ambitions, but locked in disputes with its Western partners, which he implied were suspicious of Moscow's links with China.

His speech came a day after the two jointly condemned U.S. plans to set up Eastern European bases for a missile defense system, although Washington shrugged off the remarks.

Analysts have said that this maiden foreign trip to ex-Soviet Kazakhstan and China was intended to demonstrate that Russia had other allies to counterbalance strained relations with Europe and the United States and will pursue a balanced foreign policy.

" Hu Jintao and I agreed that Russian-Chinese cooperation has become a major factor of global security, without which important decisions are impossible," he told students at the elite Peking University.

"I will say frankly not everyone likes our strategic co-operation but we understand it is in the interests of our people whether or not others like it."

Medvedev won a standing ovation for his speech, which was lavishly scattered with quotes from Chinese thinkers like Confucius and Taoist sage Laozi.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT