China and Russia unveil boundary markers

In the final step to resolving a territorial dispute along the border between Russia and north east China, boundary markers were unveiled this week. The two countries reached an initial resolution on the final, small sections of the disputed eastern boundary in October 2004. The largest of these was a small zone near Khabarovsk. Mapping in The Times atlas, 2004 edition (above) had shown both boundaries defining the area - a narrow piece of land defined by the Ussuri and Amur (Heilongjiang) rivers, roughly 50 km long as disputed.

The 2004 agreement transferred all of the smaller Tabarovskiy island and half of the larger Bol'shoy Ussuriyskiy island (also known as Heixiazi Dao) to China. The resolved boundary is shown on the map extract opposite.

Background: China and the USSR signed a well publicised 1991 agreement, on the delineation of their 4,300 km Far Eastern boundaries. This settled the whole China-Russia border dispute, except for a few tiny river islands, notably Bol'shoy Ussuriyskiy island and an island in the Argun river. The agreement was ratified by Russia in 1992. A further agreement took place in 1994, dealing with the vastly shorter western boundary. There were repeated reaffirmations by the two sides that no further issues remained (e.g. Nov 97 and Apr 99), but this was misleading as certain small sticking points were still unresolved, until genuinely finally being sorted out in October 2004.

News stories:

Associated Press: China, Russia unveil boundary markers
BBC News: China and Russia sign border deal