Putin meets Chinese Communist leader to boost Moscow-Beijing alliance
Moscow (AsiaNews) - President Vladimir Putin today will meet a close aide to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the Kremlin said.
The meeting with Li Zhanshu, head of the General Office of the Communist Party of China, underlies Russia's increased effort to establish closer ties with China
However, it also underscores the fact that relations between Moscow and the West are at their worst since the Cold War, a situation that has pushed Moscow to seek new political and trade deals in the East.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also announced that the Chinese president had confirmed he would visit Moscow on 9 May to join in commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War II in Europe.
Other leaders, mainly from Asia, former Soviet republics and Latin America, will also be on hand. Some European leaders might also attend.
China has yet to confirm Xi's visit in May, but Xi has made a big public show of underscoring the importance of ties with Russia.
Moscow was the first capital he visited after assuming the presidency in 2013. Xi also attended the Winter Olympics in Sochi at Putin's invitation.
But, while the two see eye to eye on many international diplomatic issues, including the conflict in Syria, and generally vote as one on the United Nations Security Council, China has not proved so willing to support Russia on Ukraine.
China has said it would like to develop "friendly cooperation" with Ukraine, and repeatedly said it respects the ex-Soviet state's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Nonetheless, Chinese officials have said that Western powers should take into consideration Russia's legitimate security concerns over Ukraine.
China is also looking to Russia for help in diversifying its energy supplies. Last year, the two countries signed a multi-year deal gas supply that Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom estimated at US$ 400 billion.
For Putin, the signing of the long-awaited "Power of Siberia" deal in May was a diplomatic coup. However, the economic crisis and the drop in oil prices (gas prices are linked to the global price of oil, which has halved since it was signed last May) may force Russia to postpone its completion. The new pipeline would have delivered 38 billion m3 of gas a year from new gas fields to China's eastern industrial heartland.
According to the Moscow Times, Moscow needs new outlets for gas from fields it has already developed further west, including the giant Bovanenkovo Yamal field opened in 2012. Europe, Moscow's main export market, cut imports from Russia by 9 per cent to 147 bcm last year.
At present, Russia hopes to sign a final deal in the first half of 2015 for the cheaper "Altai" route from existing fields to China's west. As such, it is a greater priority for Moscow than the "Power of Siberia" project, and would soak up existing spare capacity rather than require the development of new fields.
Whilst the western alternative Altai route would provide China with gas from Yamal, which is now pumped south from the Arctic to Russia's domestic system and westward to Europe, the route is considerably less attractive to Beijing because it already has gas in its far west, and needs it in the industrial east.
Since Altai gas would reach China at its remote far western border, it would require a huge new pipeline system within China to take it to cities in the centre and the east.
For now, Beijing has expressed an interest in both projects, but it is clear that it prefers 'Power of Siberia'. For its part, Gazprom must decide by summer which pipeline to build first.
.png)
05/11/2022 14:55
