Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has kicked off a two-day visit to China as the two nations seek to further strengthen ties despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
(Bloomberg) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has kicked off a two-day visit to China as the two nations seek to further strengthen ties despite Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Mishustin arrived in Shanghai late Monday night and is expected to address a Russia-China business forum Tuesday and then go to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, Tass reported. He is also scheduled to meet former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who now heads the New Development Bank in Shanghai, according to Tass.
Mishustin and Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak will attend the forum, Bloomberg reported earlier. Russian fertilizer tycoons Andrey Guryev and Andrey Melnichenko, pipe maker Dmitry Pumpyansky and Alexey Mordashov of steel and mining giant Severstal, have also been invited, although it is unclear how many of the business leaders, who have all been sanctioned by the US and its allies, will attend in person.
Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said last week he was planning to attend the forum, and will discuss issues including winter wheat and meat shipments to China, he told an agriculture conference aired by RBC TV on Friday. The Chinese foreign ministry and commerce ministry didn’t respond to questions about the event.
Mishustin is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, and discuss cooperation in industry, energy, transport infrastructure, and agriculture, the Russian government has said.
Read more: Russian Premier, Sanctioned Tycoons to Visit China Forum
Beijing didn’t join the US-led sanctions after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and since then bilateral trade has boomed. China’s exports to Russia hit a record in April, jumping 153% from a year earlier to $9.6 billion, and it also imported the same amount worth of oil, gas and other goods.
The cooperation between two countries shows “strong resilience, ample potential and wide space,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in a regular briefing on Friday.
Xi visited Moscow in March, reaffirming his friendship with Putin just days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the Russian leader’s arrest on charges of war crimes. During the three-day visit, he invited Mishustin to visit China “as soon as possible” to boost ties with Li.
Beijing’s top security official Chen Wenqing, who also sits on the Communist Party’s 24-member Politburo, is also visiting Russia from May 21 to 28 to attend meetings on law-enforcement and security, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday.
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