China and Russia will seal an agreement this year on piped gas from western Siberia, China’s foreign minister said yesterday, a deal that will continue Russia’s economic shift towards Asia and away from western Europe.
Russia’s split with the west over Ukraine has pushed it closer to China, which is eager to develop overland energy supply lines that reduce its dependence on vulnerable sea lanes. China has taken a carefully neutral stance on the Ukraine conflict, while more broadly expressing its support for Russia.
The relationship between the two on-again, off-again Cold War allies is “mature and stable”, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, told a press conference yesterday. “There is enormous internal impetus and room for expansion.”