Russia and China sign 100-billion-dollar deal of the century

A new deal between Russia and China in the sum of about $100 billion became the largest deal that has ever been signed between the two countries, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said as a result of the meeting with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

Photo: Russia and China sign 100-billion-dollar deal of the century

The two presidents signed a large package of documents, including those in the oil and gas industry, in Moscow.

“It became possible owing to the use of the mechanism that we invented with the leader of the People’s Republic of China a year ago,” Medvedev said.

Dmitry Medvedev and Hu Jintao conducted negotiations about the shipments of Russia’s natural gas to China. The presidents signed the Memorandum About Mutual Understanding on the Cooperation in the Field of Natural Gas.”

It is an open secret that China suffers from the shortage of natural gas. The talks between the two countries about the deliveries of Russian gas to China last for several years already. Moscow was not satisfied with the conditions, which Beijing proposed for cooperation: the prices in question are a lot lower than those, which Russia has with its gas contracts in Europe.

If China is willing to purchase large quantities of Russian gas, it will be necessary to build a new gas pipeline. A senior official of Russia’s gas monopolist, Gazprom, said that it did not go about the deliveries of natural gas to China in 2011. The two countries still negotiate the prices.

Russia currently runs the Eastern Gas Program in the Far East and in Siberia. The program was developed with an intention to supply oil and gas to the Asian-Pacific region, including China , RIA Novosti news agency reports.

Russia and China are working on a possibility to use rubles and yuans in their mutual settlements, Vice Prime Minister of the Russian government, Igor Sechin said.