BEIJING - Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that their nations will strengthen economic cooperation in areas including natural gas and currency trading. China is offering support to Russia, which is suffering from U.S. and European sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, but there are differing agendas that could be discerned between the two nations.
In a joint economic statement, China and Russia set forth eight items including 1 expanding the scale of trade and optimizing the trade framework, 2 improving financial cooperation, 3 consolidating their energy partnership and 4 promoting exchanges and cooperation in the field of technology.
After signing the agreement, Putin expressed confidence, saying that the two countries have been effective in working together to expand mutual trade and maintain this momentum. Over the last 10 years, two-way trade has grown by 116%. This has not only strengthened the material foundation for bilateral relations, but has also given an important boost to economic and social development in both countries. In regards to energy supply to China, Putin said on the same day that the total volume of gas supplies will be at least 98 billion cubic meters by 2030, revealing plans to increase supply to more than double the current level.
Demand for Siberian natural gas has stagnated due to Western sanctions, but China's purchases from Russia in 2022 increased to 260% of the previous year in terms of value.
Putin intends to rely on China to purchase Russian gas. For China, having the ability to buy natural gas at a low price is beneficial for energy security.
Many specific economic cooperation measures mentioned by Putin at the press conference were not included in the joint statement.
Putin said that all agreements had been completed, but there was no reference to the agreements in the statement released by the Chinese side. Xi spoke about general ideas at the press conference.
The two countries may have been unable to agree on specific terms.