Russia says trade with China will hit a record $200 billion this year as Moscow and Beijing deepen economic ties
- Russia's trade with China will hit $200 billion this year, Russia's prime minister said.
- Meeting that target would take trade between the two countries to a new record.
Russia's trade with China is going to boom to a new record this year, according to the Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
At a Shanghai forum on Tuesday, Mishustin said he believed Russia and China would be able to raise their total trade volume to $200 billion this year, per a report from the Global Times, a Chinese state-run news outlet.
Meeting that target would bring total trade between Russia and China to its highest level ever, surpassing the previous record of $190 billion notched in 2022.
"The governments of Russia and China have begun a coordinated effort to implement the agreements reached at the supreme level," Mishustin said, according to state-run Tass.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Moscow has relied more on China, especially as a market for its crude oil exports, after Western countries imposed sanctions.
This year, Russia could supply up to 40% of China's energy, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said at the forum.
Additionally, around 70% of the trade between China and Russia are denominated in China's yuan or Russia's ruble, per an estimate from Andrey Kostin, the chief executive of one of Russia's state-run banks.
Meanwhile, China's premier Li Qiang told Mishustin in a meeting on Wednesday that the government was willing to take their partnership to a "new level," Reuters reported.
Russia and China have made particular efforts to strengthen economic ties over the past year, and the two nations have joined forces in shunning the use of the US dollar.
In April, Russia had around $45 billion in yuan reserves that it began using to cover its budget deficit, and it's now creating a new reserve currency with China and other BRICS nations that could potentially challenge the greenback.