Interfax reports that Russia and China will increase their bilateral trade and broaden the use of national currencies in their transactions in 2023. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, speaking at a Russia-China business forum in Shanghai, stated, “I am confident that this year we will accomplish the task set by [our] heads of state—Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping—to raise mutual trade to $200 billion.”
China-Russia bilateral trade increased by “almost a quarter to approximately $52 billion” in the first quarter of the year, he said. China has been Russia’s main trading partner for more than a decade already, he noted. “And our positions in China’s equivalent rating also changed in the first three months of this year—we went up to seventh place from tenth place.”
