In an article in Sputnik, Pepe Escobar reports that the Third Belt and Road Forum and Putin’s in-depth meeting Xi Jinping “was a graphic illustration of Russia-China co-hosting the drive towards a multipolar world.” Putin, as the main guest of honor by President Xi, brought along with him a full delegation, including: two Deputy Prime Ministers, heads of the Foreign Ministry, the Economic Development Ministry, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East and Arctic, the Central Bank governor and some other agencies. Business representatives also joined, including the heads of Gazprom and Rosneft, and the heads of Sberbank and VTB, according to TASS.
Escobar reports that the two Presidents “signed the largest deal in their shared history for the supply of grain; 2.5 trillion rubles ($26 billion) for 70 million tons of grain, leguminous and oilseed cargo delivered for 12 years.”
However the news is even more dramatic with natural gas agreements. Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Chairman Dai Houliang, met on the sidelines of the forum in Beijing, and “signed an Additional Agreement to the Gas Purchase and Sale Agreement along the Eastern Route for additional volumes of Russian gas supplies to China until the end of 2023,” Gazprom wrote on its Telegram channel.
