By Simone McCarthy, Nectar Gan and Darya Tarasova for CNN
Russia President Vladimir Putin with China President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin. Photo: AFP / ALEXANDER KAZAKOV
Russian President Vladimir Putin has hailed a relationship with Beijing at an "unprecedentedly high level", as the two countries reportedly inked a long-stalled agreement to build a massive new pipeline to send natural gas to China via Mongolia.
Following a meeting of Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh in Beijing on Tuesday, Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom announced that a legally binding agreement had been signed for the construction the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline.
The pipeline, which will supply 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually from western Russia to northern China, is a project Moscow has long sought to push off the drawing board. Analysts have previously said it could offset nearly half of the gas exports to Europe that Russia has lost since the Ukraine war began.
The deal includes a 30 year supply agreement and the price of supplies will be lower than Europe is charged, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said, Russia's TASS news agency reported.
After the meeting of the three nations' leaders, Putin and Xi sat down for their first formal talks since the Russian leader arrived in China on Sunday.
The meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing was the latest show of solidarity between the two strongmen as Putin shrugs off Western pressure to end its war on Ukraine, and Xi casts his country as a new leader of world governance, at a time when US President Donald Trump's foreign policy is upending the globe.
Harking back to Soviet ties with China during the World War II, Putin hailed "the memory of the brotherhood in arms, trust, mutual support, and firmness in defending common interests" as the foundation of their countries' strategic alignment "in the new era."
"We were always together then, and we remain together now," Putin told Xi at the start of their bilateral sit-down.
China-Russia relations have "withstood the test of shifting international circumstances," Xi said, calling Putin an "old friend."
"China is willing to work together with Russia to support each other's development and revitalization, firmly uphold international fairness and justice, and build a just and reasonable global governance system," Xi said.
The close rapport between Xi and Putin was on show throughout a two-day security summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin that concluded Monday. During a banquet dinner Sunday evening, Xi warmly greeted Putin and was seen gesturing expressively in conversation with the Russian leader.
Putin previously said that he discussed his recent negotiations in Alaska with Trump with Xi during summit activities Sunday. Putin met Trump last month in Alaska as the US pushes for Russia to end its war in Ukraine.
The Russian president's visit to China is also expected to bring him shoulder-to-shoulder with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un. Both top a guest list of foreign dignitaries joining Xi at a massive military parade in the Chinese capital Wednesday.
The visit is the Russian leaders' longest to a single country since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a Kremlin record of his overseas visits.
- CNN
