Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21, 2023.
Alexey Mashev | AFP | getty images
As Russian President Vladimir Putin visits China, Moscow’s leader will be keen not only to strengthen ties with Beijing but also to achieve important wins in the areas of trade and energy.
Putin’s two-day visit to Beijing comes on the heels of a state visit by his US counterpart Donald Trump, in which the White House claimed diplomatic and trade victories.
The Russian President is now visiting Beijing with the hope of confirming and strengthening already close ties with China.
CNBC takes a look at three key areas where Russia’s leaders will look to deepen ties and make concrete promises:
geopolitical relations
It’s no coincidence that Putin’s arrival comes just days after Trump concluded his state visit to Beijing, Ed Price, senior non-resident fellow at New York University, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Putin, he said, was likely “sending a reminder to Americans that yes, you can come and visit China as long as you want, but Russia is closer and friendlier than you.”
Putin and Xi have developed close ties for more than a decade, Price said, and the Russian president would like to re-establish Russia’s position as China’s closest geopolitical ally. Price said Putin would also seek diplomatic support from China regarding the Ukraine war, a conflict that Beijing has tolerated while not openly supporting.
“As long as President Putin has regional ambitions in his west, which is Ukraine, he will certainly have diplomatic success in his east, which is China,” he said.
“This is another way of saying that President Putin is playing a long game, a long game for the Russian state, in which he is bringing China as close as possible while he is dealing with what he perceives as a threat, which is NATO in Eastern Europe.”
However, a potentially awkward talking point is comments Xi reportedly made to Trump, Reported by the Financial TimesIn which he said that Putin may ultimately “regret” the invasion of Ukraine.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that China’s Foreign Ministry denied the comments made while calling him “Pure Imagination.”
Deloitte China chief economist Sitao Xu told CNBC on Monday that Moscow wants “some kind of assurance” from China when it comes to their “very complex relationship,” while China would like to know where the Ukraine war is going.
“Russia is China’s biggest neighbor and our border is so long, so if we don’t have to worry about security on the west coast, it will be a huge relief for us,” he said. Xu expects the latest summit to make announcements on energy ties and perhaps further Chinese investment in Russia.
energy relations
Analysts say there is a growing disparity in relations between Russia and China regarding energy, especially since the start of the Ukraine war.
Russia, which faces heavy international sanctions, has lost important markets for its oil and gas exports, particularly in Europe, and has become increasingly dependent on India and China as buyers of its energy exports.
An analyst told CNBC that Putin will travel to Beijing this week with hopes that the second Power of Siberia gas pipeline, which runs from Russia through Mongolia to China, can be given the green light, but it appears China is in no rush to approve the infrastructure project.
“The main deal Putin wants to discuss with Jinping is, of course, the gas pipeline,” Sergei Guriev, dean of the London Business School, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin arrive at the private residence of Chinese leader Zhongnanhai in Beijing, China on September 2, 2025.
Alexander Kazakov via reuters
Guryev said, “Now the discussion is about ‘Power of Siberia 2’, which will double Russian pipeline exports to China. China has consistently delayed the discussion about this pipeline because it thinks it has energy security because of the diversification of energy sources (which it has created).”
Russia needs this pipeline, he said, because it has lost the European market for its gas. Beijing is less desperate. “China has built up substantial energy reserves and can wait until the Middle Eastern conflict is over,” Guryev said.
Ed Price of NYU said: “Russia has something that China wants. Russia has energy, and China wants Russian energy because it anticipates a situation in which it will be difficult to get other energy… So, China wants to keep Russia close.”
business relationship
Putin has billed his latest visit to China as the latest in a long series of regular encounters and communications between the powers.
“Regular mutual visits and Russia-China top-level talks are an important and integral part of our joint efforts to promote the full range of relations between our two countries and unlock their truly limitless potential,” Putin said in remarks reported by the TASS news agency on Tuesday.
But analysts say Russia would like to develop its economic and trade partnership with Beijing in as many areas as possible.
“For Russia, this visit is very important,” Guriev told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” because “Russia is dependent on China on technology, consumer goods and manufacturing goods.”
“Russia used to consider the EU as its major trade partner (but) because of the war in Ukraine… Russia turned to China and doubled trade with China, so there has been a major realignment of trade flows to the Russian economy (there) rather than to the EU. Now, China is Russia’s biggest partner and trade volumes have doubled over the last four years,” he said.