Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told China’s premier that bilateral relations are stronger than ever, as Moscow looks to Beijing to help it withstand the economic pressure of US-led sanctions.
“Today, relations between Russia and China are at an unprecedented high level,” Mishustin told Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Wednesday. “They are characterized by mutual respect of each other’s interests, the desire to jointly respond to challenges, which is associated with increased turbulence in the international arena, and the pressure of illegitimate sanctions from the collective West.”
The Russian politician expressed confidence that the two countries will achieve annual bilateral trade turnover of $200 billion ahead of schedule, and may even exceed the goal. The two sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on service trade cooperation, along with agreements related to patent reviews and grain export requirements.
Mishustin is also holding a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping Wednesday afternoon, China’s state broadcaster reported without further details.
Mishustin, who is on a two-day trip to China, told a business forum in Shanghai on Tuesday that Russian farmers were ready to significantly increase agricultural exports to China. The leader, who is sanctioned by the US and many of its allies, added that bilateral trade had helped Russia decrease its “dependence on the dollar,” according to Russian news agency Interfax.
China has refrained from joining the US-led sanctions campaign against Russia for triggering Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, and since then bilateral trade has boomed. China’s exports to Russia hit a record in April, jumping 153% from a year earlier to $9.6 billion.
Mishustin’s inaugural visit to China as prime minister comes as Xi has dispatched a special envoy to Ukraine and several European countries. The simultaneous trips symbolize how Beijing is balancing maintaining ties with Moscow, while also trying to portray Xi as a global peacemaker with unique ties to leaders on both sides of Russia’s war.
(Updates to add details about Mishustin’s meeting with Xi. A previous version corrected the Russian prime minister’s comments about sanctions in second paragraph.)