[69127] Failure of Putin's gas diplomacy: China refuses to approve 'Power of Siberia-2' project
[69127] Failure of Putin's gas diplomacy: China refuses to approve 'Power of Siberia-2' project
Vladimir Putin's visit to China ended without progress on the strategic gas pipeline, as the Chinese president refused to comply with the Kremlin's requests.
Failure in energy efforts: Russia and China did not reach agreements on the gas pipeline
Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent visit to Beijing was marked as a diplomatic failure on a central issue: approval for the construction of the "Power of Siberia-2" gas pipeline. According to reports in The Washington Post, Putin failed to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping to advance the project, which was intended to supply 50 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to China annually. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that "as of now, there is no information on concrete timelines for the project's activation," as quoted in Ukrainska Pravda.
Ukrainian media outlets, including Censor.NET and UA Stream, highlighted that the lack of agreement indicates the "limits of Russian-Chinese cooperation." While both leaders used the meeting to jointly criticize the "unilateral hegemony" of the US, political sources point out that Beijing maintains clear boundaries in its support for Moscow.
At the same time, analyses in Ukrainska Pravda point to latent tension in Moscow regarding China's role as a supplier of key components for Ukrainian drones, which has helped Kyiv increase its production capacity. UA Stream also reported on parallel tensions in the US-China sphere, as Beijing exerts pressure on the Trump administration regarding arms deals with Taiwan.
Despite the Kremlin's attempts to present warm friendly relations, it appears that China's economic and geopolitical constraints are preventing it from becoming an absolute energy safety net for Russia.