Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said he had held “substantive” talks with China’s central military commission vice chairman, Zhang Youxia, with both agreeing on the need to strengthen ties, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday.

“Yesterday we held very substantive talks,” RIA state news agency cited Belousov as saying.

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“We have common views, a common assessment of the situation and a common understanding of what we need to do together.”

The task now is to strengthen the bilateral ties, he said.