At their year-end meeting, China and Russia celebrated a fruitful year of cooperation and pledged to strengthen their relationship on a number of fronts as their record trade exceeded a symbolic threshold.
At a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that bilateral trade between his country and Russia had crossed $200 billion in the first 11 months of this year. This achievement surpassed the goal set by Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Lenin in 2019.
Subsequently, the two leaders promised that they would hit $200 billion by 2024. Following the Kremlin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, trade between the two nations has increased steadily, rising by almost 30% in 2022 to surpass $190 billion as a record.
According to Xi, the most recent trade data demonstrated the “strong resilience and broad prospects” for collaboration. Xi stated during the meeting that the two sides should “deepen cooperation on economy, trade, energy and connectivity” and “give full play to the advantages of political mutual trust,” according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
China, the second-biggest economy in the world, became Russia’s main source of economic support after the US and its allies imposed trade restrictions and sanctions in response to Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour. This led to accusations that Beijing is supporting Russia’s war effort despite Beijing’s declarations of peace and neutrality in the conflict.
