Negotiations Between Putin And Xi Jinping. Russia And China Strive For Equal Cooperation

Russia fully supports China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, known as the New Silk Road, and will participate in the implementation of this worthy initiative. “Governments, ministries, and departments, as well as regions of China and Russia are working hard to implement the important agreements we have reached,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during talks in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The most visible result of the development of Russian-Chinese economic, trade, and technological cooperation will be the volume of bilateral trade, which “in the near future will reach $200 billion per year,” Putin emphasized. In 2022, China-Russia trade volume reached $172.41 billion, an increase of 32% compared to the same period of the previous year.

Over the past 10 years, Putin and Xi have held more than 40 one-on-one meetings. In a recent message to Xi Jinping, Putin noted that the upcoming negotiations will deepen Russian-Chinese ties “for the benefit of our friendly peoples, in the interests of ensuring security and stability on the Eurasian continent and throughout the world.”

On Wednesday, at the Third International Forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, Putin said that Russia and China, “like most countries, share the desire for equal cooperation in the world.”

“As for the One Belt One Road initiative that was put forward by Xi ten years ago, it “has really received very good development,” according to the Russian leader.

“But we can never be 100 percent sure how it will turn out. Our Chinese friends, China under your leadership, you are able to succeed,” Putin emphasized. “In the current difficult conditions, close foreign policy coordination is particularly in demand,” he added. “This is what we are doing,” said the Russian president.

Putin added that Russia is “in tune” with the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as China’s plans to strive for cooperation rather than competition. Putin thanked President Xi Jinping for China’s support of the ideology of developing a “new multipolar world,” without the outdated hegemony of the West.

The OBOR Forum was not limited to just political statements, such as, for example, the ones by Hungarian President Viktor Orban, who, during negotiations with Xi Jinping, in addition to expressing Budapest’s support for the Belt and Road Initiative, also emphasized that Hungary “has long been pursuing a friendly policy towards Beijing.”

On the sidelines of the forum, a number of important agreements and memorandums were signed, particular between Russia and China, according to which Moscow committed to supplying Beijing with grain worth an astronomical amount of 2.5 trillion rubles ($25.7 billion). Over the next 12 years, Russia will export to China 70 million tons of various types of grains: wheat, corn, sunflower seeds, and legumes. According to Putin, this year the grain harvest in Russia will be at least 137-138 million tons, of which 50-60 million will be exported.

And finally, Gazprom President Alexey Miller, accompanying Putin during his visit to Beijing, said that “in the near future, Russian gas exports to China via the (Siberian) gas pipeline network will reach volumes similar to Russian gas exports to Europe,” which were registered before anti-Russian sanction restrictions by Western Europe.