China and Russia wrapped up a bumper year of cooperation with an annual year-end meeting in which the two vowed to deepen ties across a range of issues as record trade between them surged past a symbolic target. <\/p>\n
Bilateral trade between China and Russia surpassed $200 billion in the first 11 months of the year, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said at a sitdown with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Wednesday \u2013 marking the achievement ahead of schedule of a goal set by Xi and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in 2019. <\/p>\n
Then, the two leaders pledged to reach the $200 billion mark by 2024. Trade between their countries has continued to expand in the wake of the Kremlin\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, growing roughly 30% in 2022 to reach a record $190 billion. <\/p>\n
The latest trade figures showed the \u201cstrong resilience and broad prospects\u201d for cooperation, Xi said Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The two sides should \u201cgive full play to the advantages of political mutual trust,\u201d and \u201cdeepen cooperation on economy, trade, energy and connectivity,\u201d Xi said during the meeting, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua. <\/p>\n
China, the world\u2019s second largest economy, emerged as a key economic lifeline for Russia after the United States and its allies cut trade and imposed sanctions following Moscow\u2019s invasion of its neighbor \u2013 sparking criticism that Beijing is propping up Russia\u2019s war effort, despite its claims of neutrality in the conflict and calls for peace. <\/p>\n
Chinese leaders see Moscow as a key counterweight against a hostile West and have criticized Western sanctions. It has not supported efforts in the United Nations to censure Russia, while ramping up energy purchases from its northern neighbor and becoming a critical supplier of consumer goods for its isolated market. <\/p>\n
Chinese customs data released earlier this month showed China-Russia trade reached a record nearly $218.2 billion for the first 11 months of 2023. But the figure represents just 4% of China\u2019s $5.41 trillion in global trade over the same period. <\/p>\n
The two countries also bolstered their cooperation across a raft of issues during Mishustin\u2019s two-day visit, which included an annual high-level, year-end meeting co-chaired with Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Agreements inked included strengthening trade, transport, ecommerce and customs procedures, and enhancing cooperation on developing Arctic shipping routes, aircraft manufacturing, space exploration, and satellite navigation, according to a readout from China\u2019s Foreign Ministry. <\/p>\n
Separately, the Chinese and Russian militaries held regular consultations Wednesday and agreed to \u201cimprove the level of strategic coordination\u201d between them and \u201cmake new contributions to promoting peace and security in the region and the world,\u201d China\u2019s Ministry of Defense said. <\/p>\n
During his engagements, Mishustin hailed the \u201ccenturies-old friendship between the Russian and Chinese peoples\u201d and said relations between the neighbors had reached \u201cthe highest level ever,\u201d according to Russian state media Tass. <\/p>\n
The last year has seen two face-to-face meetings between Xi and Putin, both of whom have made limited overseas trips over the past two years. <\/p>\n
Xi chose Moscow for his first overseas visit days after entering his norm-breaking third term as China\u2019s President earlier this year. Putin made a rare overseas visit to Beijing in October, where he was treated as the guest of honor at a forum celebrating Xi\u2019s Belt and Road infrastructure drive. <\/p>\n
During a year-end live broadcast last week, Putin hailed the relationship with China, calling the level of cooperation \u201cunprecedented\u201d and predicting a 30% increase in trade on the previous year. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe governments of Russia and China are deeply involved in achieving the goals that we set together, my friend President Xi Jinping\u00a0 \u2013 also Russia\u2019s friend \u2013 and I. The work is progressing rapidly, steadily and confidently,\u201d Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript. <\/p>\n\n
China and Russia wrapped up a bumper year of cooperation with an annual year-end meeting in which the two vowed to deepen ties across a range of issues as record trade between them surged past a symbolic target. Bilateral trade between China and Russia surpassed $200 billion in the first 11 months of the year, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}