Russia has benefited from its geographical advantages. China has become Russia's largest trading partner for 11 consecutive years. The bilateral trade volume has exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars for three consecutive years. In 2020, the two sides will help each other to fight the epidemic and promote pragmatic cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, scientific and technological innovation and go against the trend.

Energy trade is more prosperous

Not long ago, all major Russian media paid attention to the news: The Russian government approved Sinopec's participation in the SIBUR company's "Amur Natural Gas Chemical Complex" investment project. The scale of this project is huge, and the investment is expected to reach 10.7 billion US dollars. After commissioning, Russia's largest natural gas processing and natural gas chemical cluster will be formed in the Far East.

Withstood the test of the epidemic, Sino-Russian bilateral trade has gradually recovered from the second half of 2020, and China's share of Russia's foreign trade has further increased. The achievement of this achievement is inseparable from the cooperation between the two countries in large-scale projects in the fields of energy, chemical and nuclear energy.

In December 2020, the middle section of the Sino-Russian East Route Natural Gas Pipeline was put into operation. China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region uses clean natural gas from Russia for heating. In 2020, Russia will transport 4.1 billion cubic meters of gas to China through the Eastern Natural Gas Pipeline. "The supply of natural gas to the Chinese market exceeds the planned quantity and is higher than the annual supply stipulated in the contract. The Chinese market is developing rapidly." Gazprom President Miller praised the eastern route natural gas pipeline as "a great mutual benefit between Russia and China. engineering".

The Russian coal export market has also shifted eastward in recent years. In 2020, Russia will export 122 million tons of coal to the Asia-Pacific region. The Joint Communiqué of the Twenty-Fifth Regular Meeting of the Chinese and Russian Prime Ministers clearly stated: “We support the enterprises of both sides to carry out coal trade cooperation in accordance with the principles of marketization.” Zhang Hanhui, Chinese Ambassador to Russia, said that with the joint efforts of both China and Russia, the coal trade between the two countries Will release more development potential.

According to the Russian Satellite News Agency, in February 2021, the Russian LNG carrier "Christof Margeri" successfully passed the eastern end of the Arctic route for the first time during this period of time to transport natural gas from the Russian port of Sabetta to Rudong, Jiangsu. Russian Ambassador to China Denisov said: “There is no doubt that the constructive cooperation between Russia and China in large-scale projects will continue to maintain a strong momentum in 2021.”

Cross-border e-commerce is more prosperous

During the epidemic prevention and control period, there is a strong demand for online work, study, and entertainment. The "home economy" has boosted the sales of Russian electronic products. In 2020, Chinese-made smartphones will rank first in sales in the Russian market, and exports of other Chinese electronic products to Russia have also achieved rapid growth, with exports of notebook computers and tablet computers increasing by 39% and 29% respectively.

Semenov, vice chairman of the Local Cooperation Council of the Russia-China Friendship, Peace and Development Committee, believes that under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, the application of electronic and digital technologies in Russia has accelerated. "The demand for new tools and new platforms in Russia-China trade is increasing. The rapid development of new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce will promote the continued growth of Russia-China bilateral trade."

Suifenhe, Heihe and other cities have set up comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce in Russia to further promote cross-border trade between China and Russia. E-commerce companies rely on geographical advantages to develop rapidly. With the help of marketing methods such as short video and live streaming, as of the end of 2020, the sales of Heihe e-commerce company "Ruspinduo" reached nearly RMB 70 million. The increasingly perfect transportation and logistics facilities also create conditions for the upgrading of Sino-Russian economic and trade. In 2020, the first "China-Europe Express" post station Berrelast Logistics Center jointly constructed by the two countries will be put into operation in Moscow.

The China-Europe Express has strongly supported the development of Sino-Russian bilateral trade. The Russian Railway Logistics Corporation announced that in 2020, the volume of container rail transit from China to the EU via Russia will increase by 55%. Russia Railway Logistics President Dmitry Murev believes: "Considering the development trend of the transportation logistics service market, the transportation volume will continue to grow in 2021."

Farmer's cooperation is sweeter

In the live delivery link of the 3rd China International Import Expo in 2020, Russian sweets and ice cream were favored by Chinese consumers, and they were all sold out within three seconds. Dmitry Krasnov, head of the Agricultural Export Development Center of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, said that in 2020, Russia's total candy exports to China will increase by 20%. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce of China, the trade volume of agricultural products between the two countries reached US$5.55 billion in 2020, a record high. Among them, China’s imports were US$4.09 billion, an increase of 13.7%. China has become the largest export market for Russian agricultural products and meat.

Agricultural products trade can best enable the people of the two countries to see the benefits of economic and trade cooperation. The continuous improvement of the cross-border transportation system between China and Russia and the continuous improvement of customs clearance facilitation have laid the foundation for the further expansion of agricultural trade. The competent authorities of China and Russia are negotiating and signing a new roadmap for the development of trade in goods and services, aiming to fully enhance trade efficiency and expand two-way investment and strategic cooperation on large projects.

With the upgrading of the Sino-Russian economic and trade relations, the pragmatic cooperation between the two countries has continued to deepen, and the advantages of Russia's high value-added products cooperation with China have become increasingly prominent. The China-Russia Year of Science and Technology Innovation officially kicked off in 2020. The two sides will implement more than 1,000 cooperation projects, making it the longest list of cooperation since the two countries launched the theme year. China and Russia have increasingly close cooperation in the development and production of new crown vaccines and drugs, as well as in new business fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud economy, Internet of Things, and big data.

The economies of China and Russia are highly complementary. The strong resilience and huge potential of bilateral economic and trade relations determine that the impact of the epidemic is temporary. The fundamentals of bilateral economic and trade cooperation have not changed, and the momentum of long-term positive cooperation will not change. Editor/Tian Zengpeng