(VOVWORLD) -Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday held online talks on bilateral relations and regional issues, according to Russia’s news site TASS.
Putin said the relations between Russia and China have passed all the tests and continue to grow dynamically. He added that despite Western restrictions, Russia and China have achieved record high growth rates in mutual trade which rose 25% this year and was on track to meet a 200 billion USD target by 2024. Russia holds second place in terms of pipeline gas supplies to China, and fourth in terms of LNG exports, he added.
President Putin said that Russia has become one of China's leading suppliers of oil and gas, with 13.8 billion cubic meters of gas shipped to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline in the first 11 months of 2022.
He said he expects Xi to make a state visit to Russia in the spring of 2023.
Xi said the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between China and Russia proved to be sustainable and that China is ready to strengthen this partnership.