As Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, he agreed with Chinese President Xi Jinping on closer energy cooperation between the two countries. Valuing Russia as a reliable source of energy for China, observers say the partnership between the two will enhance sustainability of global supply chains. China has plans to strengthen strategic energy cooperation with Russia, push for mega oil and gas projects, accelerate major tech innovations in energy, explore new energy partnerships, and support each other's efforts to safeguard energy security, read a Chinese statement after the high-profile meeting between Xi and Putin on February 4 in Beijing. Chinese and Russian government officials signed agreements of cooperation in major areas, said the statement, without elaborating.
“The statement by the top leaders of the two countries sets the tone for future cooperation on energy," said Liu Qian, Executive Deputy Director of the Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies at the China University of Petroleum. He added that the two countries have actively conducted energy technology cooperation in recent years. The two nations have a lot of room for cooperation in LNG production and energy infrastructure build-up, Liu said. Future energy corporation could include the China-Russia east route, Arctic LNG 2 project, and the Tianwan and Xudabao nuclear power plants. Russia's Gazprom announced it had signed a long-term agreement with its main Chinese partner China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to supply natural gas to China via the Far Eastern route. “As soon as the project reaches its full capacity, the amount of Russian pipeline gas supplies to China is going to grow by 10 billion cubic meters, totaling 48 billion cubic meters per year” according to the statement.
China's trade volume with Russia topped USD140 billion for the first time in 2021 as China was Russia's top trading partner for the 12th year in a row. China's exports to Russia jumped 33.8% year-on-year to USD67.57 billion, while its imports from Russia, mostly oil and gas, rose 37.5% to USD79.32 billion, Chinese Customs data showed. Whether in terms of geopolitics or the complementarities of resources and markets, a closer partnership between Moscow and Beijing is mutually beneficial and win-win, Lin Boqiang, Director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times.
