Tianjin, China
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Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed ties with Beijing on Tuesday at “unprecedented high levels.”
Putin and Xi Jinping spent hours on Tuesday, meeting with the Mongol president, sitting for their formal consultations, drinking tea at the official homes of Chinese leaders, and at the latest show of solidarity between two strong people trying to present a new world order.
On Tuesday afternoon, Russian state-owned energy company Gazprom announced that a legally binding agreement has been signed for construction on the large force of the Siberian-2 gas pipeline, which Moscow has been trying to push the drawings off for years.
The deal is a big victory for Putin, and Putin is increasingly turning his eyes to China to replace Europe as a major gas buyer. It is also a collective show of rebellion against President Donald Trump, who is urging the country to cut Russia’s energy imports as part of an attempt to end the war in Ukraine.
The new pipeline will supply 50 billion cubic meters of gas each year from western Russia to northern China. Analysts have previously said it could offset almost half of the gas exports to Europe that Russia has lost since the start of the Ukrainian War.
The transaction includes a 30-year supply contract, and the price of supply will be lower than Europe’s billed, according to Gazprom CEO Alexy Miller, Russian TASS news agency reported.
“This will be the largest, widest and most capital-intensive gas project in the world,” Miller was quoted as saying by Tass.
However, China has not confirmed the agreement yet.
Beijing has long been seen as cautious about its megaprojects, given its propelling longstanding energy security concerns about the renewable energy transition and longstanding energy security concerns relying on a single supplier.
Chinese state media reports on the Russian, Chinese and Mongolian leadership meetings have not mentioned the pipeline. In subsequent talks between XI and Putin, Chinese leaders said their country should “use major projects to promote cooperation.”
Asked about the deal at Tuesday’s regular press conference, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said China and Russia “consistently implement practical cooperation in a variety of areas, including energy,” and asked reporters to “contact relevant Chinese authorities with more details.”
Putin and XI sat for their first formal consultations on Tuesday, since Russian leaders arrived in China on Sunday.
The meeting at the Beijing People’s Conference was the latest show of solidarity between the two strong people when Putin suppressed Western pressure to end the war with Ukraine and put his country as the new leader in world rule, Putin was the latest in solidarity between the two strong people when Trump’s foreign policy was overturning the world.
Reminiscence of Soviet ties with China during World War II, President Putin praised “the rigidity of defending brothers, trust, mutual support and common interests” as the basis for the country’s strategic integrity “in a new era.”
“We’ve always been together and now we’re together, but President Putin told XI when the start of their bilateral coordinates.
China-Russia relations “had endured tests that changed the international situation,” Xi said he called Putin “an old friend.”
“China is willing to work with Russia to support each other’s development and revitalize, firmly support international equity and justice, and to create a fair and rational global governance system,” Xi said.
According to Russian national media, after the formal meeting, Xi Jinping invited Putin to the residence of Zhongnanhai, a walled leadership compound in Central Beijing, the Communist Party. China’s state broadcasting station said XI and President Putin had tea with a small group of aides around noon.
The close relationship between XI and Putin was also on display during the two-day security summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, which ended on Monday. During dinner at a Sunday night banquet, Xi was seen warmly greeting Putin and gestures expressively in conversations with the Russian leader.
Putin previously said he had discussed recent negotiations in Alaska with XI and Trump during Sunday’s summit operation. Putin met Trump in Alaska last month. The US is calling for Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
The Russian president’s visit to China is also expected to bring shoulders from shoulders along with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Both are top of the guest list of foreign high-ranking officials joining XI in a massive military parade in China’s capital on Wednesday.
According to Kremlin records of his overseas visits, the visit has been the Russian leader since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
