China’s President Xi Jinping met Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in Beijing this week, using the occasion to align Russia more closely with China’s new Five-Year Plan for “advancing modernization on all fronts.” Xi said Beijing would: “expand high-standard opening up” and invited Moscow to synchronise its own development blueprint with China’s, laying the groundwork for deeper co-operation across energy, transport and digital systems stretching through Eurasia.

Xi described closer co-operation with Russia as: “our shared strategic choice,” calling on both sides to: “maintain close co-ordination” and: “make new and greater contributions to world peace and development.”

He urged officials to upgrade bilateral co-operation across sectors from energy, connectivity, agriculture, aviation, and aerospace to new frontiers such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, and green development.

Bilateral trade reached an all-time high of 1.74 trillion yuan, or about R4.53 trillion, in 2024, driven largely by discounted Russian oil and gas. A central pillar of this energy partnership is the Power of Siberia pipeline, a 3 000-kilometre route carrying gas from eastern Siberia to China’s northeastern industrial belt under a 30-year supply deal signed in 2014.

The line is designed to deliver up to 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually, with Gazprom, a Russian state-owned energy company, supplying roughly 31 billion cubic metres last year and reporting a further 28% rise in the first eight months of 2025 when compared to the same period last year. Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) shipments to China also hit a year-high in September 2025, up 37% month on month.

Moscow and Beijing are also negotiating a second link, the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which would connect western Siberian gas fields currently oriented toward Europe to China through Mongolia. If built, it would roughly double Russia’s gas export capacity to China and further anchor the two economies in a long-term energy partnership.

Trade between the two countries now extends far beyond oil and gas. Rail freight through the Russia–China border totalled 16.9 million tons between January and May 2025, roughly level with nearly 17 million tonnes in the same period of 2024 and about one fifth higher than in 2023.

Agricultural exports have surged as well. Moscow overtook Canada as China’s largest pea supplier in 2024 with 1.1 million tonnes, and Russian wheat sales to China surpassed those of the United States for the first time this year. The trade relationship has become a comprehensive one, with energy still dominant but now reinforced by growth in transport, manufacturing inputs, and food supply chains.

Mishustin, delivering greetings from President Vladimir Putin, said the two leaders had this year: “reinforced the comprehensive strategic partnership of co-ordination” and pledged to deepen co-operation in: “economy, trade, science, technology, energy, agriculture and digital economy.” His remarks reflect a reality where Russia increasingly relies on Chinese machinery, electronics, and dual-use components to keep its industries running under Western sanctions.