Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Michoustin is in Shanghai on Tuesday for an economic forum, part of a two-day visit during which he will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Michoustine arrived in Shanghai on Monday night, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. He was received by the Russian Ambassador to China, Igor Morgoulov, as well as by the Chinese Ambassador to Moscow, Zhang Hanhui.
In Shanghai, the Russian prime minister will attend a Russia-China business forum and visit a petrochemical research institute, according to the Kremlin, and will also hold talks with “representatives of Russian business circles” in China.
The forum invited several Russian businessmen subject to Western sanctions, particularly in the key sectors of steel, mining and fertilizers, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, Alexander Novak, according to the Bloomberg agency.
Russia’s largest energy customer
China became Russia’s biggest customer in the energy sector last year, allowing Moscow, under Western sanctions linked to the war in Ukraine, not to see its gas exports collapse.
An AFP photographer on Tuesday observed a heavy police presence around the Russian consulate in Shanghai and the conference center where the economic forum is being held.
Mikhail Michoustin will travel to Beijing on Wednesday, where he will meet President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang, the Russian state agency Tass reported. China and Russia have increased economic cooperation and diplomatic contacts in recent years.
Their strategic partnership has grown even stronger since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and analysts say China now has the upper hand in the relationship, given Russia’s isolation on the international stage. Beijing claims to be neutral in this conflict and has never publicly condemned the invasion.
In February, the Chinese government published a document calling for a “political solution” to the conflict and respecting the territorial integrity of all countries, which implies that Ukraine is included. At a March summit in Moscow, President Xi invited his counterpart Vladimir Putin to come to Beijing.
Source: BFM TV
