‘Multipolar world’: What Xi and Putin announced after Beijing summit

Deepening economic cooperation – and moving away from the US dollar

The Kremlin statement said Beijing and Moscow had signed around 40 intergovernmental, interagency and corporate documents. “Many of these focus on the further deepening of our economic cooperation,” it noted.

The statement added that, last year, trade between the two countries reached almost $240bn, while the Chinese statement said bilateral trade grew by 20 percent in the first four months of this year.

Since the war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022, Russia has become increasingly reliant on Chinese technology and manufacturing. Last month, Bloomberg reported that Russia now imports more than 90 percent of the technology targeted by US and European Union sanctions via China, using Chinese suppliers and intermediaries to obtain components with military and dual‑use applications vital to drone production and other defence industries.

“Both sides should build on this momentum, deepen the alignment of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan with Russia’s development strategy until 2030, promote the upgrading of mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields, and serve the development and revitalization of both countries,” the Chinese ministry statement said.

The Kremlin statement said that nearly all import and export transactions between Russia and China are in roubles and yuan. “In other words, we have actually created a stable system of mutual trade that is protected from external influence and negative trends in the global markets,” it said.

(Al Jazeera)

Ensuring energy supplies

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that an understanding had been reached for the route and construction of the long-delayed joint Siberia 2 pipeline, but details are still being negotiated. Once completed, the pipeline will transport 50 billion cubic metres of Russian gas annually to China via Mongolia, significantly expanding energy flows between the two countries.

The Kremlin’s statement said that Russia and China are actively cooperating in the sphere of energy.

“Our country is one of the largest exporters of oil, natural gas (including LNG) and coal to China. We are definitely ready to continue to ensure reliable and uninterrupted supplies of these types of fuel to the rapidly growing Chinese market,” the statement said.

As European markets have largely closed to Russia as a result of the war in Ukraine, China has emerged as a crucial buyer of Russian oil and other energy products, benefitting from steep discounts on Russian products.

In December 2022, the Group of Seven (G7), the EU and Australia placed a cap on the price of Russian oil at $60 per barrel, ostensibly to reduce Russia’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine. The cap was later reduced to around $48 by the EU and the United Kingdom.

The ‘Year of Education’

Both statements said Xi and Putin had agreed to expand student exchange programmes and cooperation between universities and research platforms to boost joint scientific research.