What does Russia need from China?
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023.
Alexey Maishev | Afp | Getty Images
As Russian President Vladimir Putin heads to China, the Moscow leader will not only strengthen ties with Beijing but will also be eager to make significant gains in trade and energy.
Putin’s two-day trip to Beijing comes on the heels of a state visit by his US counterpart Donald Trump, where the White House boasted of diplomatic and trade gains.
The Russian President is now heading to Beijing in hopes of reaffirming and strengthening already close relations with China.
CNBC examines three key areas where the Russian leader wants to deepen ties and secure concrete commitments:
Geopolitical ties
It’s no coincidence that Putin’s arrival comes just days after Trump wraps up his state visit to Beijing, Ed Price, a nonresident senior fellow at New York University, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Putin likely “sends a message to Americans reminding them that, yes, you can come and visit China as much as you want, but Russia is closer and friendlier,” Putin said.
Price added that Putin and Xi have developed close relations for more than a decade and that the Russian President will want to reassert Russia’s position as China’s closest geopolitical ally. Price said Putin will also seek China’s diplomatic support regarding the Ukraine war, which Beijing has tolerated although not openly approving of.
“As long as President Putin has regional ambitions in Ukraine, his West, he should also have diplomatic success in China, his East,” he added.
“This is another way of saying that President Putin is playing the long game for the Russian state, playing a long game, bringing China as close as possible while also dealing with NATO in Eastern Europe, which he sees as a threat.”
But one potentially odd talking point is Xi’s alleged words to Trump: The Financial Times reportedHe said Putin “may eventually regret” the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that the Chinese foreign ministry rejected these comments and called for them to do so. “pure fiction.”
Sitao Xu, chief economist at Deloitte China, told CNBC on Monday that Moscow will seek “some kind of reassurance” from China when it comes to “very complex relationships,” while China will seek insight into where the Ukraine war is going.
“Russia is China’s biggest neighbor and we have such a long border, so if we don’t have to worry about security on the Western flank, that would be a huge relief for us,” he said. Xu expected the latest summit to bring announcements regarding energy ties and perhaps Chinese investments in Russia.
energy bonds
Analysts point to an increasingly asymmetrical relationship between Russia and China regarding energy, especially since the start of the Ukrainian war.
Facing heavy international sanctions, Russia has lost vital markets for its oil and gas exports, especially Europe, and has become increasingly dependent on India and China as buyers of its energy exports.
An analyst told CNBC that Putin will travel to Beijing this week in hopes of getting the green light for a second Siberian Power gas pipeline from Russia to China via Mongolia, but China appears to be in no rush to approve the infrastructure project.
“The main deal that Putin wants to discuss with Xi is, of course, the gas pipeline,” London Business School dean Sergei Guriev told CNBC on Tuesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk at the personal residence of Chinese leader Zhongnanhai in Beijing, China, on September 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov | via Reuters
“Currently, ‘Power of Siberia 2’, which will double Russia’s pipeline exports to China, is being discussed. China has constantly postponed discussions on this pipeline because it feels that it has energy security due to the diversification of energy sources. [that it has built up]” said Guriev.
He added that Russia needs this pipeline because it has lost the gas market in Europe. Beijing is less desperate. “China has built significant energy reserves and can expect the Middle East conflict to end,” Guriev said.
NYU’s Ed Price added: “Russia has something that China wants. Russia has energy, and China wants energy from Russia because it foresees a situation where other energy is harder to obtain… So China wants to keep Russia close.”
trade ties
Putin planned his latest visit to China as just one in a long process of regular encounters and communications between the powers.
“Regular mutual visits and Russia-China high-level talks are an important and integral part of our joint efforts to develop all relations between the two countries and unleash their truly unlimited potential,” Putin said in a statement reported by the TASS news agency on Tuesday. he said.
However, analysts say Russia will try to improve its economic and trade partnership with Beijing in as many areas as possible.
“This visit is very important for Russia,” Guriev told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” program, because “Russia depends on China for technology, consumer goods and manufactured goods.”
“Russia’s main trading partner was the EU” [but] Because of the war in Ukraine… Russia has turned to China and doubled trade with China, so there is a major realignment of trade flows for the Russian economy [there] instead of the EU. “China is now Russia’s largest partner and its trade volume has doubled in the last four years,” he said.
