Russia says it will soon finalise route for Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China

Russia on Wednesday released a statement saying that it will very soon finalise the route of the China-bound Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline, which is intended to traverse through Mongolia. This huge project is aimed at delivering more natural gas to Beijing.

As per reports, Moscow is making efforts to bolster trade with Asia as its economic ties with the Western countries have withered due to its military offensive in Ukraine.

"The decision for the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline's route is at the final stage," Russia's deputy prime minister and top energy official Alexander Novak said in an interview with the Russian magazine Energy Policy.

The proposed pipeline will run through southern Siberia near the city of Achinsk and turn east towards Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk before reaching the Mongolian border, Novak said.

He said it was "assumed" that the pipeline would pass near the eastern Siberian cities of Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kansk, Sayansk, Angarsk and Irkutsk, then through the Buryatia region south of Lake Baikal, reaching the Mongolian border near the settlement of Naushki.

In the month of March this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin, during Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow, said that "all agreements" between the two countries had been made for the pipeline.

Novak said during the Chinese president's visit that Russian and Chinese companies would sign contracts on the pipeline "by the end of the year", however, the schedule for its completion is not yet clear.

Putin calls Xi Jinping a 'friend'

Earlier this week, as per Russian news agency Interfax, Putin termed Xi Jinping a 'friend' and said he will meet him soon, following reports that the Kremlin leader was planning to visit Beijing in the month of October.

"Quite soon we will have events, and there will be a meeting with the president of the People’s Republic of China," said Putin, according to Interfax.

"He (Xi) calls me his friend, and I am happy to call him my friend because he is a person who does a lot for the development of Russian-Chinese relations."

Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in July that Putin planned to visit China for the Belt and Road Forum in October, while Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said that China had invited the Russian leader as the "main guest" at the event.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE