Russia has been more actively pursuing relations with China for the past few years. It makes sense as Russia has plentiful natural resources including natural gas, oil, and minerals. And with China being the world’s main manufacturing base and it’s economy rapidly modernizing, there is huge demand for what Russia can provide. The relationship between Russia and China not only has economic consequences but huge international political implications.
As a result, there have been a lot of meetings between Russia and China on how to improve and expand bilateral relations. The Second International Conference “Russia and China: Taking on a New Quality of Bilateral Relations,” included a wide range of businesspeople and government representatives who discussed the following issues:
• Politics and economy in bilateral relations
• Influence of internal and external factors on Russian-Chinese trade, economic, and financial collaboration
• New drivers and innovation approaches to the economic ties between Russia and China
• Energy and innovations as a foundation of Russian-Chinese comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation
• Promising areas of Moscow-Beijing business cooperation
Another key reason for the increasing interaction between Russia and China has resulted from recent rhetoric from the European Union (EU) as it seeks to gain independence from Russia and its hegemonic tendencies, especially in countries bordering Russia.
Due to China’s new status as an emerging global superpower, its relations with Russia will be constantly changing and under negotiation. Energy will be the prominent issue affecting foreign policy between the two countries. As China has shown with its activities in the South China Sea, attempting to lay claim to energy and mineral resources, Sino-Russian relationships could also occasionally flareup over disputed resources and possibly an expanding encroachment of China on Russia’s perceived sphere of influence.
Finally, from a US perspective, China-Russian cooperation, especially currency agreements, could be a source of new threats to the US dollar as the reserve currency in international trade.
The following video explains the expanding relationship between China and Russia. According to CGTN which produced the video: “China is one of the world’s biggest oil consumers while Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers. Both countries have deepened their relations through a number of energy projects, with Beijing and Moscow having long discussed the supply of Russian energy to China. As early as 2000, the two countries had already envisioned potential pipeline routes which could link Russia’s Siberian oilfields to China’s Daqing oilfields. CCTV’s reporter Guan Yang visited China’s Daqing oilfield, where Russian crude oil has been flowing into its domestic pipeline networks since 2011.”
