MOSCOW: Chinese President Xi Jinping appears Friday as a guest of honour atRussia’s showcase economic forum, as the two neighbours present a unitedfront in the face of shared troubles with the US.
Xi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for a three-day visit with Vladimir Putinand described the Russian leader as his “best friend” during a cosy meetingat the Kremlin.
To end the trip, Xi and his host will appear at a plenary session of theannual Saint Petersburg Economic Forum, which Moscow hopes will woo foreigninvestors despite an uncertain business climate.
Xi is set to present China’s ideas on sustainable development andmultilateral cooperation, Beijing said ahead of his appearance.
The 2019 forum “will illustrate very clearly just how bi-polar the worldhas become,” said Chris Weafer, a senior partner at the Macro Advisoryconsulting firm.
“In the same week that President Trump will be having tea with the Queen inLondon, President Putin will be hosting President Xi in Saint Petersburg.”
The trip comes five years after Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimeapeninsula led to a serious rift with the West and a move towards Russia’sneighbour to the east.
Beijing is meanwhile locked in a trade war with the United States.
Moscow and Beijing’s economic ties have grown in recent years, though theyremain heavily weighted in favour of China, which dwarfs Russia in economicand demographic terms.
Xi’s visit has already seen the signing of dozens of commercial contractsin e-commerce, telecoms, gas and other areas.
While this is the Chinese leader’s first appearance at the economic forum,where he heads a 1,000-strong delegation, he and Putin have met regularlyin recent years.An uneven relationship
Ahead of Xi’s visit, Kremlin advisor Yury Ushakov described China as”Russia’s most important economic partner”.
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The partnership is yielding increasing trade, which grew by 25 per cent in2018 to hit a record $108 billion, he said.
But despite political tensions and repeated rounds of sanctions overMoscow’s actions in Ukraine, the European Union remains by far the biggestforeign investor in Russia — well ahead of China and the US.
“China is taking time to ramp up investments in Russia,” said CharlesRobertson, chief economist at Renaissance Capital. “It wants to feel secureabout the long term, it doesn’t want to rush into it.”
He predicted China would make big investments over the next three to fiveyears, possibly even sooner, as Russia plays an important role in Chineseprojects along Beijing’s New Silk Road.
Among major Russian-Chinese collaborations is the Power of Siberia gaspipeline, a joint project between Gazprom and China’s CNPC which is set todeliver Russian gas to China from later this year.
CNPC and the Silk Road Fund also have a 29.9 per cent stake in the YamalLNG liquefied natural gas megaproject run by Russia’s Novatek in ArcticSiberia.
But analysts stress the limits of this alliance.
“Asymmetries are present across the board but are especially visible in theeconomic field,” according to a report published last month by theInstitute for International Political Studies (ISPI) in Milan.
Russia’s GDP is today no bigger than that of China’s Guangdong province,and its defence spending is a third of that of its neighbour.
“It is hard not to see who has the upper hand in this relationship,” theISPI report said. -APP/AFP
