Chinese President, Xi Jinping, has met Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, in Beijing.

The Russian Prime Minister, who is on a two-day official visit to China has been in the country since Tuesday. It is Mishustin’s second trip to China this year.

On Tuesday, Mishustin met his Chinese counterpart, Li Qiang and said that ties between Moscow and Beijing had reached an “all-time high”.

According to Premier Li, China-Russia relations have “continued to operate at a high level, with more political mutual trust, deepening people-to-people friendship, more resilient practical cooperation, and closer international coordination.”

Mishustin’s visit comes two months after President Vladimir Putin made a rare trip outside Russia to meet Xi and a month after a senior Chinese general was hosted in Moscow.

Meeting Xi on Wednesday, Mishustin offered his condolences over the recent earthquake which killed at least 131 people in northwestern region of China, saying that Russia is willing to provide rescue assistance according to China’s needs.

Xi expressed his gratitude and noted that after the earthquake, President Putin and many foreign leaders have sent messages of condolences.

“China is making every effort to carry out rescue efforts and is doing its best to protect the lives and property of the people,” Xi said.

The Russian Prime Minister said that in 2023, trade and economic cooperation between the two countries managed to cope with challenges and reached a new level.

“The mutual trade turnover amounted to almost 18 trillion rubles, or 1.5 trillion Chinese yuan. You’ve already said that. We have completed the task that you and President Putin set for us,” Mishustin said.

Mishustin emphasized that Moscow and Beijing have almost completely switched to national currencies in mutual payments and that more than 90% of financial transactions are made in rubles and yuan.

“Good results have been achieved in the investment sector, with 80 joint projects totaling almost 20 trillion rubles, or about 1.6 trillion yuan,” he added.

Xi Hails Trade Ties With Russia

On his part, Xi Jinping praised the growth of bilateral trade between the two countries, which reached a record $200bn in the first 11 months of 2023.

“Developing China-Russia relations is a strategic choice made by both sides based on the fundamental interests of the two peoples,” Xi said.

The strong relationship between the two nations, which has endured despite Russia’s military invasion of its neighbour Ukraine in early 2022, has faced pointed criticism from Western leaders in recent years.

Xi stated that the Chinese economy has strong resilience, great potential and wide room for maneuver, and its long-term sound fundamentals remain unchanged.

Also, he said that China firmly promotes high-quality development and high-level opening up, which will provide new opportunities for the development of various countries including Russia.

Xi affirmed that China supports the Russian people in taking the development path of their own choice.

He expressed the hope of taking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Russia next year as a new starting point to continuously expand the positive effects of the high-level political relations and jointly move forward in the process of comprehensively promoting economic and social development and realizing national rejuvenation.

Xi called on the two sides to give full play to the advantages of political mutual trust, economic complementarity, infrastructure connectivity and people-to-people exchanges.

He added that they should continuously enrich the connotation of cooperation; deepen cooperation on economy, trade, energy and connectivity; and jointly maintain the security and stability of the industrial and supply chains.

He also called for joint efforts to make the China-Russia Cultural Year in 2024 and 2025 a success, design and carry out diverse cultural activities, and consolidate the social and public support for the ever-lasting friendship between the two countries.