Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin met with his Chinese counterpart, Premier Li Qiang, in Hangzhou, China on Monday, Russian media reported.
Mishustin arrived in Hangzhou Monday to open a two-day trip in China, which will be capped off by a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday.
The pair discussed the development of trade and economic cooperation and strengthening the energy partnership between the two countries, among other topics.
Mishustin noted that China remains the Russian Federation’s largest trading partner, and that bilateral trade is now conducted almost entirely in their national currencies. He said that the share of the dollar and euro in trade settlements was at “the level of statistical error.”
However, business daily Kommersant reported that trade between the two countries in 2025 is set to decline for the first year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
According to Kommersant, statistics show that in the first nine months of 2025, trade between China and Russia declined by 9.4% year-on-year to $163.62 billion
Kommersant noted that the decline can be explained partially by sanctions pressure, weak domestic demand in China and the saturation of the Russian market with Chinese products.
The Interfax news agency also reported that the two delegations signed eight agreements. They include agreements related to cooperation on humanitarian issues, cooperation between the two countries’ customs services, cooperation in preventing the illegal cross-border movement of nuclear materials, a Russian-Chinese roadmap for cooperation in the field of satellite navigation for 2026-2030, and others.
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