What does Russia need from China?
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023.
Alexey Maishev | Afp | Getty Images
As Russian President Vladimir Putin travels to China, Moscow’s leader will be keen not only to bolster ties with Beijing but also to extract key wins in areas of trade and energy.
Putin’s two-day trip to Beijing comes hot on the heels of his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump’s state visit, which saw the White House boast diplomatic and trade wins.
The Russian president now heads to Beijing with the hope of reaffirming and reinforcing already close ties with China.
CNBC looks at the three key areas where Russia’s leader would like to deepen ties and extract concrete pledges:
Geopolitical ties
It’s no accident that Putin’s arrival comes just days after Trump concluded his state visit to Beijing, Ed Price, senior non-resident fellow at New York University, told CNBC Tuesday.
Putin is likely sending “a reminder to Americans that, yes, you can come and visit China as much as you like but Russia is closer, and friendlier than you,” he said.
Putin and Xi have developed close relations for more than a decade and the Russian president will want to reassert Russia’s position as China’s closest geopolitical ally, Price added. Price said Putin will also be seeking China’s diplomatic backing with regard to the Ukraine war, a conflict Beijing has tolerated if not openly endorsed.
“As long as President Putin has territorial ambitions in his West, which is Ukraine, he must have diplomatic success in his East, which is China,” he added.
“That’s another way of saying that President Putin is playing a long game, a long game for the Russian state, in which he’s bringing China as close as possible, while he is dealing with what he sees as a threat, which is NATO in Eastern Europe.”
One potentially awkward talking point, however, are remarks allegedly made by Xi to Trump, reported by the Financial Times, in which he said Putin might ultimately “regret” the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that China’s foreign ministry had denied the comments were made, calling them “pure fiction.”
Sitao Xu, chief economist at Deloitte China, told CNBC Monday that Moscow would be looking for “some sort of reassurance” from China when it comes to their “very complicated relationship”, while China would want some idea of where the Ukraine war is heading.
“Russia is China’s biggest neighbor, and we have this long border, so if we do not have to worry about security along the Western flank, that will be a huge relief for us,” he noted. Xu expected the latest summit to yield announcements on energy ties and perhaps further Chinese investment in Russia.
Energy ties
Analysts note an increasingly asymmetrical relationship between Russia and China with regard to energy, particularly since the launch of the Ukraine war.
Russia, which faces hefty international sanctions, has lost vital markets for its oil and gas exports, most…
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