The "limitless" friendship professed by the presidents of China, Xi Jinping, and Russia, Vladimir Putin, in February 2022, a few weeks before the invasion of Ukraine decreed by Moscow, still knows no borders. "Today, relations between China and Russia are at an unprecedented high level," said Mikhail Mishustin, Russian Prime Minister, during his visit to Beijing, in which he met with Xi and the premier of the Asian power, Li Qiang.
President Xi added that he hoped the two countries would push forward relations in various fields "to a higher level" and enhance "economic, trade and investment cooperation," according to the official reading of the meeting collected by Xinhua.
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Last minute of the Ukrainian War
The visit of Mishustin – the highest-ranking Russian leader to travel to China since the Kremlin launched the war of aggression that has turned international politics upside down – is of marked economic content. The meeting has resulted in the signing of new trade agreements to deepen cooperation on investment in commercial services, a pact on the export of agricultural products to China and another on sports cooperation, according to Reuters.
The trip certifies the upward trend in exchanges between the two countries, with China becoming one of Russia's lifelines against the tourniquet of sanctions promoted by the West.
The Russian prime minister stressed that bilateral relations "are characterized by mutual respect for the interests of the other side, [as well as] readiness to jointly respond to emerging threats related to the growing turbulence on the international scene and the illegitimate pressure of sanctions exerted by the collective West." according to the Russian agency Tass. The Russian prime minister's two-day visit on Tuesday included a stop in Shanghai, where he attended a Sino-Russian business forum with a delegation of more than 15 businessmen from his country, also according to the Russian agency. Among them were the CEO of Russia's Sberbank and the CEO of telecommunications company Rosteleco, both hit by the various rounds of punishment following the invasion of Ukraine.
An air bubble amid Western sanctions
The visit represents an air bubble in the middle of the ocean of sanctions, from which a Russia tries to emerge from which diplomatic ties in the West are exhausted. "The pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia is characterized by its resilience, its great potential and its wide space, which has become even more prominent this year," Li Qiang said during the meeting with Mishustin, whom he received on the steps of the Great Hall of the People, in Tiananmen Square, with the military band playing the Russian anthem.
Xi, for his part, said China and Russia should consolidate and expand basic cooperation in energy and interconnections, and create new growth points. He has also expressed his intention to promote together with Russia and the rest of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia) the joint construction of the New Silk Road plan, the ambitious investment and infrastructure project through which Beijing seeks to connect to the world. China aims to promote a more open regional market and ensure the stability and fluidity of the global industrial and supply chain, the leader of the Asian power has said.
Mishustin's trip comes after a summit between China and the five former Central Asian republics was held in the Chinese city of Xi'an last week, at which they agreed to further deepen their ties to forge what Xi called an "eternal friendship" with a region where Moscow has begun to lose some of its influence.
But relations with Russia are also experiencing a sweet moment. Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, which China has never condemned, trade between the two countries has skyrocketed, especially driven by the growing imports of Russian hydrocarbons by the Asian giant. "China is willing to work with Russia to implement the consensus of the two heads of state and promote pragmatic cooperation in various fields to a new level," Li said.
As the war progresses, Russia is forced to look east. In the first four months of this year alone, trade with China has grown by 41.3% year-on-year, according to official figures published on Tuesday and cited by the official Chinese newspaper Global Times. Trade between the two countries has already increased by more than 30% in 2022, reaching 190,000 million dollars (about 176,270 million euros). And it is expected that this year they will exceed the barrier of 200,000 million dollars, a round figure that Xi and Putin set as a goal for 2024. Mishustin has assured that 70% of transactions between Russia and China are carried out in local currencies (rubles and yuan), according to Tass.
Russia expects to increase the flow of energy resources to China by around 40% this year, Alexander Novak, Russian deputy prime minister in charge of energy policy and who is also part of the delegation, said on Tuesday in Shanghai, according to the AFP agency. Novak also said that China and Russia are discussing plans to cooperate in the "supply of missing technological equipment", which seems to show that the sanctions are taking their toll on the Eurasian country.
The visit comes after a G-7 summit held this weekend in Hiroshima (Japan), in which Russia and China have led the debate. The world's seven largest industrialized democracies agreed to tighten the screw on sanctions against Russia a little tighter by imposing greater export controls and trying to improve the effectiveness of measures already in place. In addition, in the final communique, the leaders call on China "to pressure Russia to end its military aggression and withdraw its troops from Ukraine immediately."
Beijing has been strengthening its role for months as a possible puppet of a negotiated solution to the war. In February, the Chinese Executive presented a proposal with 12 points to seek a political solution to the "Ukraine crisis". After meeting Putin in March and hosting several European leaders afterwards, Xi tasked a special representative to travel to Europe to gauge the possibility of a deal. Former Chinese Ambassador to Moscow Li Hui, who visited Kiev last week, is still on tour at the moment.
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