His messages to the leaders of CIS countries called for further development of traditional friendship, good-neighbourly relations, mutually beneficial partnership and closer integration in many fields.
Mr Putin’s message to US President George Bush said, in part:
“Russian-US relations are true partnership. We have done much across the entire range of Russian-US cooperation in the past year.
“A no less important and responsible year is ahead. I am sure that our team efforts will remain as fruitful and dynamic as they have been to promote the settlement of global and regional problems.”
In his message to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Putin said, in part:
“The past year has been extremely fruitful for Russian-Indian cooperation. Our recent talks in New Delhi came as another convincing proof of the high level of bilateral strategic partnership.”
The message to Chinese President Jiang Zemin said, in part:
“I am delighted to recollect our recent meetings in Beijing. I am sure that all our agreements will be successfully implemented.
“I look forward to the continuation of our fruitful dialogue, which promotes the confident progress of Russian-Chinese partnership.”