Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (front) arrives at Beijing airport
October 12, 2009, for his three-day visit to China.
Putin's talks in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are also likely to
cover the international hotspots on which both governments share many views,
especially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's nuclear weapons programme
and its latest missile tests.
But with China's economy steaming ahead while Russia has lagged during the
global downturn, the two big neighbours appear focused on shoring up trade,
energy and political ties.
Russian and Chinese companies signed deals worth $3.5 billion on Tuesday, the
second day of Putin's visit to Beijing, his deputy Alexander Zhukov told
reporters there.
The Kremlin last week said the two sides would sign commercial deals worth $5.5
billion during Putin's visit.
"This is the revised number, the final figure," Zhukov said of the $3.5 billion
figure without explaining the discrepancy. "There will be no more commercial
deals signed during the visit."
The deals included a $500 million loan from the Agricultural Bank of China to
Russia's second biggest lender VTB.
Chinese and Russian news reports have said Putin and Wen may also unveil an
agreement on securing Russian natural gas, but it was not clear if the pact
would bring any concrete progress on a deal that has been mired for over three
years in disagreements over pricing.
Behind Russia's eagerness for deals appear to be worries that the global
financial crisis has left it struggling with a shrinking economy and trade while
China is confident its GDP will grow 8 percent this year, consolidating its
status as the world's third-biggest economy, said Bobo Lo, a senior research
fellow at the Centre for European Reform in London.
"The global financial crisis has accentuated the disparity between China and
Russia," said Lo, a former Australian diplomat who specialises on Sino-Russian
relations. "Really, Russia feels its been kicked into the long grass by the
crisis."
Russia, the world's ninth-biggest economy, is struggling to regain its footing
after a downturn saw GDP plunge from 7 percent annual growth to an expected 8
percent collapse this year.
China sees Russia as a valuable strategic counterweight to US influence, and
believes Russian energy, resources and markets will remain important in coming
decades, said Zhao Huasheng, an expert the two countries' relations at Fudan
University in Shanghai.
"The fall-off in trade reflects the overall global crisis...but both countries
will be making special efforts to put economic relations back on a healthy
track," he said. "This is also the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties, so both
sides want to stress the importance and positiveness of relations."
Last year, Putin and Wen oversaw the signing of a deal to build a new overland
pipeline to ship Siberian oil to China and negotiated an oil-for-loan deal
through which China secured Russian oil supply for the next 20 years and Russian
companies borrowed $25 billion from China at low rates.
Russia's Gazprom said in 2006 that the Russian gas export monopoly would build
two pipelines to China but the projects have been delayed due to disagreements
over gas pricing.
"China might like to line up another natural gas deal with Russia, if the price
is right, but it's not banking on the gas being available," said Zha Daojiong,
an expert on Chinese energy diplomacy at Peking University.
A gas pipeline connecting China to gas-rich Turkmenistan in Central Asia is due
to be finished by the end of the year, and in June Turkmenistan announced China
had agreed to lend it $3 billion to develop its largest gas field.
"Turkmenistan will keep us busy for a while," said Zha. "It's hard to imagine
Russia coming up with a similar mega-project."
The Russian oil pipeline deal came after long contention over prices and
conditions, and that agreement and any similar ones on natural gas could still
be vulnerable to friction, especially if energy prices rise as global growth
resumes, said Lo.
"You have to ask yourself how sustainable some of these deals will be," he said.
"China, and Asia in general, are still a default fall-back for Russia, not its
priority for energy deals."
(Agencies)
0 comments:
Post a Comment