Despite a slowdown in automotive shipments from China to Russia, there is room for them to advance trade settled in yuan and roubles as both countries continue to be pressured away from the US market, analysts said on Tuesday during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the world’s second-largest economy.
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Russians want consumer goods, personal electronics and common machinery that are difficult to import from the West because of trade sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began three and a half years ago, according to the analysts.
China makes products that Russia desires, from phones to factory machinery, and their trade has gradually veered away from the United States amid rising import tariffs since US President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018, with a rapid escalation this year.
“I think what China is doing now is looking for new markets as a result of the US closing off,” said Jayant Menon, a senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusok Ishak Institute in Singapore. With Russia, he said, “there is room to grow”.
Putin met with President Xi Jinping on Tuesday in Beijing. Alexey Miller, the chairman of Gazprom, Russia’s state gas giant and the world’s largest natural gas producer, and Igor Sechin, CEO of state-owned oil company Rosneft, were travelling with Putin.
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According to a Chinese statement, the two sides signed more than 20 bilateral cooperation agreements, covering energy, aerospace, artificial intelligence, agriculture, health, scientific research and education.