On October 18th, the opening ceremony of the Third Belt and Road International Cooperation Summit Forum took place in Beijing. Russian President Putin delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. Energy has always been a vital sector in the alignment of Russian and Chinese projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. In December of the previous year, the entire length of the East Siberian "Power of Siberia" natural gas pipeline project, which runs through Russia, became operational. This pipeline represents the first natural gas pipeline between Russia and China. Currently, discussions are underway between China and Russia to establish a second Sino-Russian natural gas pipeline, with the possibility of routing Russian gas through Mongolia to China. By increasing natural gas exports to China, Russia can partially mitigate the losses incurred due to European sanctions stemming from the Ukraine crisis.
Simultaneously, China's increased imports of natural gas from Russia can significantly diversify its sources of natural gas and reduce its reliance on pipelines from Central Asia. This move is conducive to the development of the natural gas market in the northeastern region.
