China-Russia sign raft of agreements after Xi-Putin talks

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow on 8 May 2015 [PPIO]

China and Russia have agreed in Moscow to integrate the Beijing’s Silk Road Economic Belt initiative with Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin held talks in Moscow.

“The talks concluded with the adoption of a joint declaration on deepening comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation and promoting mutually advantageous ties, and also a joint declaration on cooperation in coordinating development of the Eurasian Economic Union and the Silk Road Economic Belt,” said a Kremlin statement.

Russia has been ramping up its economic ties to China over the past year, more so after sanctions cut off trade and financing opportunities with the West.

On Friday, the two sides signed “cooperation and financing models for the Moscow-Kazan high-speed rail link, the Moscow-Beijing Eurasian high-speed transport corridor priority project, and projects to build a railway linking Elegest, Kyzyl and Kuragino to the Far East port”, said the Kremlin statement.

Bilateral statements signed on Friday include “reciprocal operation of the Chinese BeiDou and Russian GLONASS navigation systems, cooperation on exchange of data from remote Earth probes, a project on a cutting-edge heavy helicopter”.

Russia and China are also looking at expanding Chinese banks’ possibilities for extending credit lines to Russian companies and on avoiding double taxation.

The China Development Bank and Russia’s Sberbank and Vnesheconombank and the Chinese Export-Import Bank signed agreements on providing credit lines.

Russia’s Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation signed an agreement on the basic conditions for gas supplies from Russia to China via the western route, and Polyus Zoloto and China National Gold Group Corporation signed a cooperation agreement.

Russia’s VTB Bank signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese export credit insurance corporation Sinosure, an agreement with China Development Bank on opening a credit line to finance trade operations between China and Russia, and an agreement with China Export-Import Bank on opening a credit line worth 3 billion yuan.

Russia’s MTS and China Development Bank also signed an agreement on opening a credit line in the yuan and ruble currencies for a total amount equivalent to $200 million.

Xi arrived in Moscow on Friday and is attending a series of events to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

“Our countries suffered the greatest losses in this war, and this is why we so consistently oppose any attempt to rehabilitate Nazism and militarism or falsify history,” said Putin at a press conference following talks with Xi.

 

TBP