China and Russia agreed to discuss the issue of securing access to the East Sea via North Korea's Tumen River. The two countries plan to hold three-way talks on the matter that include North Korea. They also agreed to strengthen cooperation across all economic and military fields, including linking the Northern Sea Route with the Eurasian rail network, energy cooperation, and expanded joint drills.
On the 21st, according to China's state-run Xinhua News Agency, China's President Xi Jinping and Russia's President Vladimir Putin held a summit the previous day at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing and signed a joint statement on expanding all-around cooperation in the economy, culture, military, and transportation infrastructure.
In the joint statement, the two sides said they "will continue three-way consultations with Joseon (North Korea) on the issue of access to the sea via the Tumen River, in accordance with the agreement on the eastern section of the border signed in 1991."
China has long shown interest in gaining access to the East Sea via the lower reaches of the Tumen River to expand maritime logistics connectivity for its northeast region. The lower Tumen River also borders Russia, so China needs cooperation with Russia to pass through this area.
The two sides also agreed to build a trading port at Heixiazi Island (黑瞎子岛) in Heilongjiang (黑龙江), a China-Russia border area, and to expand rail freight transport connecting China with Russia and Europe. In addition, they plan to strengthen overall transport and logistics cooperation, including collaboration on the Northern Sea Route and advancing the China-Mongolia-Russia economic corridor.
In energy, they will continue to strengthen cooperation in oil and gas, coal, nuclear power, and renewable energy. However, no concrete agreement emerged on the "Power of Siberia 2" pipeline project, which had raised expectations. The project involves building a gas pipeline to transport natural gas from Russia through Mongolia to China. The Russian side said important discussions were held on Power of Siberia 2 during the talks, but did not mention outcomes on issues such as price negotiations or a completion timeline.
In addition, China and Russia will pursue broad cooperation in economic fields such as automobiles, shipbuilding, civil aviation, the digital economy, artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, mineral development, agriculture, finance, customs, standardization, and intellectual property, while also strengthening military and security cooperation by expanding joint training and joint maritime and air patrols.