00:00Let's talk next to Andrei Fedorov, the former Russian deputy foreign minister.
00:05Andrei Fedorov, welcome, good to see you.
00:07First of all, are Russia and China really closer than ever?
00:13Yes, we are very close, but please don't understand this,
00:19is that Russia and China will create a kind of union, especially military union.
00:24No, this close cooperation doesn't mean that we are standing absolutely on the same ground on all the issues.
00:34And it will be one of the main topics in Putin's visit to China to understand where we are,
00:43where we're together and where we are not very much together.
00:48From Moscow's perspective, how significant is this visit?
00:54It's very important because China for us, we can call China for us as a safety belt from the economic
01:02point of view
01:03and, of course, key foreign policy partner, especially in the current situation.
01:09And it's very important that this visit is going on soon after Mr. Donald Trump's visit to Beijing.
01:19And it's very important for Putin to understand whether this Trump's visit made some changes in the Chinese foreign policy
01:27or not.
01:28Energy, of course, expected to be a major part of the agenda.
01:33Just how important is China now as a market for Russian oil and gas?
01:42It's a main market now because there are pipelines, first of all,
01:48and Russia wants very much to get agreement on a new gas pipeline, Power of Siberia 2,
01:57which can compensate huge losses in our previous gas cooperation with Europe.
02:08For a Russian gas probe company, it's a major project for the future because it can guarantee for about 10
02:17years,
02:1810, 15 years of intensive work and it can really increase the market.
02:24And also it's quite possible that some of the gas that we will deliver to China could be later on
02:33from China delivered to other countries in the region.
02:36What do you think would count as a successful visit from Moscow's perspective?
02:43First of all, to confirm that we are on the same ground and expected joint political statement by Putin and
02:53Xi will be an example of it.
02:55And altogether, about 40 documents will be signed during this visit and 21 of them will be signed personally by
03:03Putin and Xi Jinping.
03:06Andrei Fedorov, thank you so much for coming on the program.
03:09Good to talk to Andrei Fedorov, the former Russian deputy foreign minister.
Comments