Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping oversaw the signing of 32 contracts on May 8, including energy, trade and finance deals aimed at strengthening economic ties.
Putin hosted Xi in Moscow for talks as well as for the May 9 colossal parade marking the 70th anniversary of the end ofWorld War IIin Europe, an event that most Western leaders boycotted amid tensions over Ukraine.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed an agreement on the basic conditions of gas supplies from Russia to China through theWesternroute. The two companies decided to extend a strategic partnership agreement for five years, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said. The agreement provides for the construction of the first, second and third Altai pipelines.
Putin said after the talks that Russia would welcome the involvement of Chinese companies in tapping the giant Vankor oil and gas fields in eastern Siberia.
Putin and Xi have also signed a decree on cooperation in tying the development of the Eurasian Economic Union with theSilk Roadeconomic project.
“The integration of the Eurasian Economic Union and Silk Road projects means reaching a new level of partnership and actually implies a common economic space on the continent,”Putin said.
China will also invest $5.8 billion in the construction of the Moscow-Kazan High SpeedRailway, Putin said. The railway is to be extended to China, connecting the two countries through Kazakhstan. It can become part of the route of the new Silk Road project, which is aimed at tying China with European and Middle Eastern markets. The total cost of the Moscow-Kazan high speed railroad project is $21.4 billion.
Xi told a news conference following his talks with Putin that the countries will expand opening up to each other, link their development strategies and deepen integration. “This is helpful to boosting theeconomicintegration of Eurasia, expanding the sharedeconomicspace and better facilitating the development of China and Russia, as well as regional countries,” Xi said. Putin spoke highly of the healthy development of ties and noted the achievements from exchanges and cooperation in various fields.
Russia’s Sberbankhas signed a facility agreement with China’s Development Bank in the amount of $966 million. They also agreed on financing an industrial project by Sberbank to the tune of $256.4 million.
The goal of the agreement is to develop the “long-term cooperation between Sberbank and China Development Bank in the area of financing foreign trade operations between Russia and China,” Sberbank said.
Russia’s state-owned VTB Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China signed a $483.2 million loan facility agreement to finance trading operations between Russia and China.
The agreements with China come at a time of tense relations between Moscow and Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Putin on May 10, a day after the Victory Day event.Putincalled for a return to normal relations with Europe. “We do face some problems today, but the sooner we can end their negative impact on our relations, the better it will be,” Putin told Merkel.
Merkel said she felt obliged to mark the end of the war against Nazi Germany during which the Soviet Union lost more than 26 million people, far more than any other country. But Merkel made it clear thatGermany was not quite ready for business as usual. “We have sought more and more cooperation in recent years,” Merkel said about German-Russian relations. “The criminal and illegal annexation of Crimea and the war in eastern Ukraine have led to a serious setback to this cooperation.”
http://www.neurope.eu/article/putin-xi-plan-russia-china-energy-team/