BEIJING - Sino-Russian relations are at an unprecedented high ahead of meetings of the two nations' prime ministers and energy negotiators.

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Beijing and Moscow are divided on natural gas issues, said Gu Jun, deputy directorgeneral of the international cooperation department of the National Energy Administration at a news briefing in Beijing.

Nevertheless China is optimistic about coming to resolutions Gu said ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Russia from Nov 22 to 24, accompanied by Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, who will hold energy talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Sechin.

Wen is due to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin before traveling to Tajikistan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting on Nov 25.

"The two sides have made a lot of efforts to narrow (an) energy pricing gap," Gu said.

"We need to demonstrate sincerity on both sides to see whether we can push forward the negotiations," said Gu.

Leaders of both nations have said the two enjoy an unprecedented high-level strategic partnership. In fact, President Hu Jintao and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev have met six times this year.

Sergei Luzyanin, a Russian expert at the Far East Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that relations between Russia and China, particularly political ties, are currently at their "best ever".

"It is the task of Russian and Chinese statesmen, scholars and diplomats to maintain such a high level for a long time," Luzyanin told Xinhua News Agency.

Advancing ties between Russia and China has been a necessity for safeguarding global security and promoting cooperation, he said.

From the perspective of geopolitics and regional policy, Luzyanin said, mutual cooperation has been very important for Russia and China to safeguard their respective national interests, not to mention that they share interests in domestic development, regional stability and modernization.

"Most importantly, the modernization goal of Russia and China will not be realized at the expense of third countries' interests," he said.

Moreover, "neither Russia nor China would interfere in internal affairs of third countries - or impose their own value of democracy and opinions of political reform on others," he added

Li Hui, the Chinese ambassador to Russia, said in an interview with Chinese and Russian media on Wednesday that Wen's visit will further boost the China-Russia strategic partnership of coordination and good-neighborly cooperative relations - apart from their pragmatic cooperation on trade and energy.

As both countries' leaders have said that Sino-Russian relations are at an all-time high, Li said, the relations between the two countries are becoming a model for bilateral relations of the world's big powers.

Zhou Wa, Xinhua contributed to this story.

China Daily