Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to “significantly increase” trade between their two countries by 2030, and Putin promised support for the wider globalization of the yuan, a move aimed at weakening the power of the U.S. dollar. “We are for the use of the Chinese yuan in settlements between Russia and Asian countries, Africa and Latin America. This practice should be further encouraged,” Putin said. Both Presidents discussed security and economic issues, including energy, resources and information technology during Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia. The leaders also signed a joint statement pledging cooperation through 2030. “Both sides opposed any unilateral sanctions without authorization from the United Nations Security Council,” the two leaders said in a joint statement. Xi also invited Putin to visit China for this year’s Belt and Road Forum. The two leaders have met 40 times over the years. In their economic road map, the two sides prioritized eight areas: developing e-commerce and integrated logistics systems, while improving financial cooperation, energy and technology ties, industrial cooperation and food security.
The Chinese and Russian Presidents also pledged to improve cooperation in the regions surrounding their shared 4,300 km border. They also vowed to “significantly increase the trade volume between the two countries by 2030”. Two-way trade in 2022 rose 34.3% to a record high of CNY1.28 trillion. Chinese and Russian leaders have set a joint goal of USD200 billion in trade by 2024. Russia’s economy has grown increasingly reliant on China. Russian imports from China rose 20% during the first two months of 2023 compared with the same period last year, even as China’s imports of discounted Russian oil have softened the impact of Western sanctions that banned and set a price cap on oil products. “We will make more contributions to safeguarding global food security, energy security, and the stability of industrial and supply chains,” Xi said at a news conference with Putin in Moscow.
President Putin noted that two-thirds of the trade between Russia and China is already in roubles and yuan, though analysts said much of that is largely in response to Western sanctions. At the start of 2022, more than 50% of Russian export settlements were in U.S. dollar, a figure that fell to around 35% by September, according to the Central Bank of Russia. Beijing has tried for years to chip away at the U.S. dollar’s clout, hoping to supplant it with the yuan – including most recently with the introduction of a digital yuan. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), during the third quarter of 2022, the U.S. dollar made up 60% of official allocated foreign reserves worldwide, compared with 20% for the euro and 3% for the yuan. In 2020, Morgan Stanley predicted that the yuan could account for 5% to 10% of global foreign exchange reserve assets by 2030, the South China Morning Post reports.
The number of Chinese sellers on Russian e-commerce sites has grown rapidly in the past two years, and Chinese products account for a large share of Russia’s global import volume. Ozon, founded in 1998, has become one of Russia’s leading e-commerce platforms, with millions of visits per day. It has more than 32.7 million buyers and 180,000 sellers, offering over 150 million products. “We have created one of the most extensive and well-developed logistics and infrastructure networks in Russia,” said Stepan Gusamov, CEO of Ozon Global, the platform’s cross-border division. More than half of Russia’s population of 146 million is covered by Ozon’s delivery or pick-up points in more than 14,000 locations across the country, he added. Gusamov noted that China is the largest e-commerce market in the world, accounting for 46.3% of global retail e-commerce sales. Ozon Global opened an office in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, in November, Gusamov said. Chinese goods currently account for about 95% of Ozon's total orders, the China Daily adds.
