First road bridge linking Russia and China completed

(November 30,2019) The cost of the project was $295 million. The bridge is 1,080 meters long, 540 meters in each country. The bridge is to be launched in April next year and should be open for passenger traffic in the middle of 2021.

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Russia's minister for Far East and Arctic development estimated that freight traffic would be about 4 million metric tons annually plus 2 million Chinese tourists.

The bridge will connect the city of Blagoveshchensk on the Russia side to Heihe in northeastern China. It is intended to increase the volume of freight traffic including agricultural products between the two countries. Vasily Orlov, governor of the Amur region said: “We are forming a new international transport corridor. It will allow us to fully reach our transit potential.”

Relations between Russia and China are warming

In the past mutual wariness and Russian worries about expanding Chinese influence in the far east of Russia which is sparsely populated but rich in minerals held back development of more connections between the two countries. However, after Russian relations with the west turned sour and sanctions were imposed upon it relations with China became more important and improved. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov hailed the special relationship between China and Russia in October. Russian president Putinj also spoke of his strong working relationship with China's President Xi Jinping.

On Monday presidents of the two countries are to announce the "Power of Siberia" natural gas pipeline. A 30=year, $400 billion deal. The history of the deal is described by Wikipedia:"On 29 October 2012 president Vladimir Putin instructed the general manager of Gazprom to start the construction of the pipeline.[1] On 21 May 2014, Russia and China signed a 30-year gas deal worth $400 billion which was needed to make the project feasible. Construction was launched on 1 September 2014 in Yakutsk by president Putin and Chinese deputy premier minister Zhang Gaoli.[2][3] Construction of the connecting pipeline in China started in June 2015.[4]On 4 September 2016, Gazprom's Chairman Alexey Miller and China National Petroleum Corporation's Chairman Wang Yilin signed an agreement to build a crossing under the Amur River for the pipeline.[5] Two tunnels under the river were completed by China Petroleum Pipeline in March 2019. The pipeline was filled with gas in October 2019.[7] Deliveries to China are to start on 2 December 2019.[8]"

History of the bridge

Construction of the bridge was by a Russo-Chinese company. It involved building 20 km of new roads. In October 2018 construction was completed on the Chinese side. However the Russian side took longer and was much more expensive costing around 13.6 billion roubles or $213 million compared to just 5.2 billion roubles for the Chinese side.

First published in the Digital Journal

China opposes any further US and EU sanctions on Russia

China has been careful in its responses to the Ukrainian situation. While it wants to retain Russia as an ally it is concerned that the Crimea referendum could set a precedent for areas such as Tibet, which is part of China.

The European Union has threatened Russia with further sanctions after Russia was accused of sending troops into Ukraine to help separatists in their battle with Ukrainian forces. There are divisions among European leaders and it is not clear when any further sanctions might come into effect.
Spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Qin Gang, said: "A political solution is the only way out, sanctions do not help to solve the underlying problems in Ukraine. It may lead to new and more complicating factors." China has said also that it respects Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity and wants to develop friendly relations with it. In a joint statement released during an official visit of Russian president Vladimir Putin to China both countries rejected the use of sanctions as political tools. As well the two condemned attempts to "encourage and finance" regime change a clear swipe at US actions in Ukraine and elsewhere to ensure election of pro-western regimes in countries around the periphery of Russia.
Sanctions by the west have encouraged Russia to turn east and in particular to grow business and trade with China. The two countries have already signed numerous, energy and business deals. The joint statement promised " a new stage in full-scale partnership and strategic relations". The two countries agreed to coordinate foreign policy where they have common priorities. President Putin said: “We have common priorities on a global and on a regional scale. We’ve agreed upon closer coordination of our foreign policy steps, including those in the UN, BRICS and APEC"
Both countries oppose attempts by the US and EU to impose sanctions. The joint statement said: “The parties stress the necessity to… reject unilateral sanctions rhetoric.Economic restrictions applied as punishment are no better than financial aid to forces that seek “a change in constitutional system of another country,” Russia has accused the US of spending $5 billion to promote regime change in the Ukraine.
 Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament also noted China's objections to sanctions against Russia. She said that both Russia and China believe that the sanctions are an attempt "to exert pressure on sovereign states to change their position and to weaken them and suppress their development." She thanked China for taking a public position in opposition to the western sanctions imposed upon Moscow. She noted also that Moscow and Beijing shared many common positions on a number of global issues.

Russia and China sign multiple business agreements

Russian President Putin and Chinese president Hu Jintao have signed multiple agreements governing cooperation on investment, energy, and technology. The signing happened during Putin's recent three day visit to China.

The two leaders pledged economic cooperation during the present global economic turmoil. Hu noted:"China and Russia are both committed to restructuring their economy and addressing the risks and adverse influence in the global economy," The goal of the two countries is to reach trade levels of 100 billion US. by 2015 doubling to 200 billion by 2020. In 2011 the level was just 80 billion but this itself was 42 per cent higher than the year before.

China and Russia also signed 12 different diplomatic and business agreements and established a 4 billion dollar joint investment fund. Russia already provided 15 million tons of crude oil through exclusive pipelines last year and expects sign an agreement to provide natural gas as well to serve China's expanding industries. For much more see this article.

China to buy anti-aircraft missiles from Russia.

No doubt the U.S. will not be pleased with this sale. Perhaps India will be a bit uneasy as well. China must be on good terms with Russia at present to allow such sales. Even more disturbing to the U.S. will be planned sale of these missiles to Iran. No doubt the U.S. is putting pressure on Russia not to deliver those.

China to Buy S-300 Missiles From Russian Plant

Reuters
China has agreed to buy a large number of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia, Interfax reported on Friday, citing the director of the Russian plant that makes the weapons.

The truck-mounted S-300, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft.

Interfax quoted Igor Ashurbeili, director general of Almaz Antei, as saying China would receive a total of 15 batteries of S-300s. He did not give the value of the deal.

In Russia's armed forces, a S-300 battery normally consists of four truck-mounted installations, each consisting of four missiles held in metal tubes.

Moscow has said it plans to fulfil a contract to supply the S-300, nicknamed "the favorite" in Russia, to Iran, unnerving Israel and its close ally the United States.

The possible sale to Tehran of the S-300, which could protect Iran's nuclear facilities against air strikes, has become a sensitive issue in Russia's relations with Israel.