Yury Tavrovsky, a renowned sinologist and Russian political commentator, expressed strong confidence in the future development of China-Russia relations, emphasizing the rapid growth of bilateral trade in recent years.
Tavrovsky, who serves as the head of the Expert Council of the Russian-Chinese Committee for Friendship, Peace, and Development, underscored that China and Russia are experiencing an unprecedented expansion of collaboration across multiple sectors, especially trade.
"Three years ago, our trade volume was about 100 billion dollars, and then in the year 2023 jumped to 240 and stays on this level because there was a political decision. So we have this combination of economic factors, natural factors, and political factors. That's why I'm sure that in the upcoming years our relations will be developing very well," he said.
While acknowledging that the expansion has not been without its challenges, Tavrovsky emphasized that efforts are actively underway to address these issues.
"Another problem in Russo-Chinese trade is logistics, because the volume of trade grows so quickly that existing railways, gas pipelines, highways, they are not sufficient. We are constructing new infrastructure. Very soon it will be ready," said Tavrovsky.
In addition to expanding trade, China and Russia have been seeing rapidly growing people-to-people exchanges.
In 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to make 2024 and 2025 the China-Russia Years of Culture, hence hundreds of cultural exchange activities, including artifact exhibitions and film screenings.
The two sides have made impressive strides in educational cooperation, with over 200 Russian universities offering Chinese courses and around 90,000 students learning the Chinese language, alongside more than 40,000 Chinese students studying in Russia.
Natural, political factors contribute to rapidly growing China-Russia trade: friendship advocate
