China’s deepening economic and political relationship with Russia has not been derailed by Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow’s foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet President Xi Jinping and sign a series of deals on infrastructure and trade.
Mishustin arrived in Shanghai on Monday afternoon, the ministry said, where he was met at the airport by Moscow’s ambassador to China Igor Morgulov and Beijing’s top diplomat in Russia Zhang Hanhui.
He will take part in a Russian-Chinese business forum and visit a petrochemical research institute in Shanghai, the Kremlin said, as well as hold talks with “representatives of Russian business circles”.
This forum has invited several sanctioned Russian tycoons, including key fertilizer, steel and mining sectors, as well as Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, who is in charge of energy issues, according to Bloomberg News.
China last year became Russia’s biggest energy customer, whose gas exports had plummeted after Western countries imposed severe sanctions over Moscow’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Mishustin will then travel to Beijing, where he will meet with Xi and Premier Li Qiang, Russian state media TASS reported.
In recent years, China and Russia have stepped up economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts, and their strategic partnership has been growing ever closer since Moscow launched its invasion.
Although China says it is a neutral party in this war, it has not condemned Russia’s actions.
In February, Beijing published a 12-point document calling for a “political solution” to the conflict, which Western countries said could allow Russia to keep much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.
During a March summit in Moscow, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an agreement to usher ties into a “new era” of cooperation. Xi also invited Putin, who days earlier had been the target of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, to visit Beijing.
Analysts say China dominates the relationship with Russia and that its dominance is growing as Moscow’s international isolation deepens.
