New hopes for ties

Coming on the heels of Russian rescuers who flew in to the quake-ravaged Sichuan province to dig out survivors and cure the injured, Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev is in Beijing today on his first presidential trip outside the Commonwealth of Independent States.

The first foreign trip for any head of state should be a carefully calculated move. The country he or she visits is supposed to be important to his or her own country's foreign relations.

Little wonder that Medvedev's two-day China visit has generated much interest.