What will you do, Trump? Putin thumbs his nose at US with a MASSIVE China gas pipeline deal, while US prez punishes India
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "What will you do, Trump? Putin thumbs his nose at US with a MASSIVE China gas pipeline deal, while US prez punishes India")
File images of Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, and US President Donald Trump Photograph: (Others)
Russia reportedly inked a 30-year gas pipeline deal with China, in a sign that both nations are defying US pressure. While India faces US tariffs for buying Russian oil, China gets cheaper energy and no pushback. Diplomatic double standards, or commerical compulsions?
In what could be a show of defiance, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tightened his embrace of China, striking a long-delayed energy deal that sends a clear message to the West — and especially to US President Donald Trump. The two countries are moving ahead with deeper cooperation in the energy sector, even as India is being punished by Trump for buying Russian oil. China, for those who don’t already know, is the largest buyer of Russian oil and gas. Now it's being handed a golden pipeline deal — and Trump appears powerless to stop it. The heart of this new alignment? Gas.
While in Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, Putin declared that relations with China had reached an “unprecedentedly high level”. This was a diplomatic high-five to Chinese President Xi Jinping as both leaders sidestepped US pressure and moved to build their version of a new global order.
What is the new energy deal between Russia and China?
According to reports from CNN and TASS, Russian energy giant Gazprom has signed a legally binding agreement for the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline, which will funnel 50 billion cubic metres of gas annually from western Russia to northern China. That volume is nearly half of what Russia lost in exports to Europe since the Ukraine war began.
China, meanwhile, will reportedly receive the gas at prices cheaper than what Europe once paid to Russia. The supply deal spans 30 years.
“It will be the largest, most extensive, and most capital-intensive gas project in the world,” boasted Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller, as quoted by Russia’s TASS news agency.
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Putin at the SCO Summit: Sipping tea with Xi and meeting Mongolia’s president
While in China for the SCO summit, Putin spent hours with Xi at the Chinese leader’s Zhongnanhai residence and also held talks with Mongolia’s president.
“We were always together then, and we remain together now,” Putin declared — likely referring to historic Russia-China ties during the Cold War.
Xi, for his part, called Putin an “old friend” and vowed to “firmly uphold international fairness and justice”.
China-Russia united front against the US
Xi and Putin were unmistakably putting up a brave front against Trump, whose foreign policy remains increasingly erratic. On the one hand, he punishes India for buying Russian oil; on the other, he does little to counter China — the world’s largest buyer of Russian energy.
On the sidelines of the SCO summit, Putin reportedly discussed his August meeting with Trump in Alaska, according to Russian state media.
So India gets punished over Russian oil, China gets pipelines from it, and Trump can’t do much
India, the so-called strategic partner of the United States, has been hit with a 25 per cent additional tariff by the Trump administration for continuing oil trade with Russia.
But Trump appears unwilling to confront China over its 30-year mega-energy deal with the Kremlin — or any of its previous deals — that have made it the largest customer of Russian energy supplies. India gets punished. China gets pipelines. This is the reality of American diplomatic double standards.
It’s worth noting that China has yet to officially confirm the pipeline deal, maintaining strategic ambiguity. Chinese state media made no mention of the pipeline, though Xi’s comment about using “major projects to drive cooperation” was telling.
As Putin stands alongside Xi once again — and with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un expected to join them at a military parade in Beijing on Wednesday (Sep 3) — one thing is certain: Moscow-Beijing ties are stronger than ever.
And Donald Trump? He can only watch a new world being built in spite of him, while his sanctions strategy quietly unravels.
