China and Russia have grown closer as trading partners in recent years. This is apparent from a study by the German economic institute IW on Monday. China has meanwhile become Russia’s most important trading partner, IW reported in Cologne on Monday. Conversely, Russia is one of the main energy suppliers to China.
In terms of trade in goods, the volume of trade has increased from about $84 billion in 2017 to $147 billion (137 billion euros) last year, according to Chinese customs. In the margins of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in February, both countries had announced their intention to increase bilateral trade to $250 billion by 2024.
However, the partners are not equals, says Sonja Beer, author of the study. For example, according to the latest figures from 2020, trade with China accounted for about 18 percent of Russia’s total foreign trade. “This makes China by far the most important trading partner for Russia. Conversely, Russia is not even one of China’s top ten trading partners. In 2021, only 2.4 percent of China’s trade volume came from transactions with Russia.”
However, according to the study, Russia was able to increase its share of Chinese coal imports last year to more than 26 percent, making it the main coal supplier to China. In 2020, Russia was also the second largest supplier of oil to China and the third largest supplier of gas to China.
For the sake of completeness: even before the war in Ukraine, economic ties between China and Russia were already strengthening.
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