Putin & Xi to launch strategic natural gas pipeline from Russia to China in December

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will take part in the launching ceremony of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, set to be held next month.

While the leaders will not be physically present at the event, they will join via a teleconference, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov told media on Monday. The Chinese Foreign Ministry confirmed the official ceremony will happen when the pipeline becomes operational in December.

“The Sino-Russian eastern route was agreed by the leaders of the two states. This is an important strategic project in the field of energy cooperation, and it is very important for both countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at the daily news conference.

Russia and its biggest trade partner, China, agreed on the gas supplies via the Power of Siberia pipeline in 2014, when Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a 30-year contract. The project will deliver natural gas from the Russian regions of Yakutia and Irkutsk to domestic consumers in the Far East and then to China, a new foreign market for Gazprom. The 3,000-kilometer (1,864 miles) pipeline is set to bring 38 billion cubic meters of the blue fuel to China by 2025.

At the end of October, Gazprom finished filling gas into the Power of Siberia pipeline, making the linear part of the project fully ready to start exports to China.

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