Xi, Putin Hail Close Cooperation as Russia’s Gazprom Announces New Gas Pipeline Deal With China

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Sep 3, 2025 - 09:52 Updated: Sep 3, 2025 - 00:21
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Xi, Putin Hail Close Cooperation as Russia’s Gazprom Announces New Gas Pipeline Deal With China
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Chinese regime leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin reaffirmed their deepening partnership during a bilateral meeting on Sept. 2, as Moscow’s energy giant Gazprom announced a new agreement to build a major natural gas pipeline linking the two nations. 

Addressing Xi as a “dear friend,” Putin said that Moscow’s relationship with Beijing has attained “an unprecedentedly high level,” according to a transcript of the meeting released by the Kremlin.

Xi, for his part, lauded the Chinese regime’s ties with Russia as an international model that has “stood the test of changes in the world,” according to the regime’s foreign ministry.

He told Putin that the Chinese side is willing to work with Russia to “maintain close high-level exchanges,” support each other’s development, and coordinate their positions promptly on issues concerning the two countries’ “core interests and major concerns,” the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Officials from the two nations signed more than 20 bilateral cooperation agreements covering a range of fields, including energy, aerospace, and artificial intelligence, the Chinese ministry said.

Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Sept. 2 that the company has reached an agreement with China National Petroleum Corp. to deliver an additional 6 billion cubic meters of gas per year, according to Russian state media TASS. They will be shipped through the existing Power of Siberia pipeline, which currently has a capacity of 38 billion cubic meters per year, Miller said, as reported by TASS.
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Miller also stated that the Russian and Chinese state energy companies signed a legally binding memorandum to construct the Power of Siberia 2 project, a major pipeline capable of shipping as much as 50 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year to China via Mongolia.
He added that the prices for the gas supplied to China will be lower than those to European customers, as reported by TASS.

Beijing has yet to confirm the gas deal.

When asked about the pipeline project at a regular press briefing later on Sept. 2, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun refrained from confirming or denying it, stating that China and Russia “always carried out pragmatic cooperation in all fields, including energy.”

Guo also mentioned that China has added Russia to its visa-free scheme. Starting from Sept. 15, ordinary Russian passport holders will be able to enter China and stay for up to 30 days without a visa. The exemption will be in effect for a period of one year.

Following the meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry said, Xi and Putin had tea at the Zhongnanhai compound, a tightly guarded complex of buildings where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader resides.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend a meeting in Beijing on Sept. 2, 2025. Alexander Kazakov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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The CCP and the Kremlin have repeatedly affirmed their “no limit” partnership that Xi and Putin first declared in February 2022, just weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
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The United States and its NATO allies have said that Beijing has been sending machine tools, chips, and other materials that have both civilian and military uses to help rebuild Moscow’s defense sector.
While the Chinese regime has been keen to position itself as a neutral player throughout the war, it has emerged as a key lifeline to Russia’s wartime economy by buying oil and other goods.

Ahead of their bilateral talks, Putin and Xi held a meeting with Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa on Sept. 2.

In his opening remarks, Putin said that the three countries are good neighbors and have “much in common,” according to the Kremlin.

“We share an interest in the joint development of political, economic, and humanitarian ties,” he said.

Xi, meanwhile, called for deeper collaboration by advancing cross-border infrastructure and energy projects that connect the three countries, according to a readout published by the Chinese foreign ministry.

He also urged the fellow leaders to expand the scale of local currency settlement, the Chinese ministry said, with the aim of creating an alternative to, or reducing reliance on, the U.S. dollar.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) speaks with Mongolian President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa before a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Sept. 2, 2025. Sergey Bobylev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
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Putin is in China for a four-day visit, which Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described as an unusual event for the Russian president’s foreign trips, according to TASS.
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Putin’s first stop was Tianjin, a port city neighboring Beijing, where he attended the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The regional power bloc, led by Beijing and Moscow, is aimed at countering perceived Western influence in Central Asia.
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This year’s summit gathered more than 20 leaders from non-Western countries, including Iranian leader Masoud Pezeshkian and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both Xi and Putin sat down with Modi separately on the sidelines of the summit.

While Modi returned to New Delhi on Sept. 1, Putin headed to Beijing to meet Xi and watch a military parade marking the end of World War II. The Chinese regime is set to showcase its most advanced arms manufactured at home in the parade, while Xi is expected to deliver a speech from the rostrum of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing.

Pyongyang had confirmed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is also set to travel to the Chinese capital to attend the Sept. 3 parade.
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