The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly

China on Thursday (March 04, 2010) urged the United States to take concrete actions to bring the frayed bilateral relationship back on track as two U.S. diplomats ended a fence-mending mission to Beijing. "The top priority for the U.S. side is to take China's stance seriously, honor China's core interests and major concerns, show sincerity and take concrete actions to push China-U.S. relations back toward sound and stable development," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news briefing. Qin's comments came at the end of a visit of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Senior White House Asia adviser Jeffrey Bader. (Xinhua)

China announced its smallest defence budget increase in years amid national belt-tightening, and vowed that its rapid military modernisation posed no threat to other countries. The proposed military budget for 2010 is 532.1 billion yuan (77.9 billion US dollars), up 7.5 percent from actual defence spending in 2009, a government spokesman said. (Sydney Morning Tribute)

As a whole, the election observation mission of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is satisfied with the process of the parliamentary elections that took place in Tajikistan on February 28, the SCO observation election mission head Mikhail Konarovsky told reporters in Dushanbe on March 1.According to him, the elections were held in open and democratic atmosphere and complied with requirements of the country’s legislation, despite separate shortcomings.The SCO election observation comprised 16 members, including representatives from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Uzbekistan. (Asia-Plus)