Russia and China announced the opening of a new bridge with a “special symbolic meaning” on Friday in hopes of boosting trade as Moscow continues to feel the effects of Western sanctions. invasion of Ukraine.
The bridge that now connects Russia’s Blagoveshchensk with China’s Heihe over the Amur River will reduce the travel distance of Chinese goods to western Russia by 930 miles, boosting trade with Beijing, which Moscow believes will increase in $ 200 billion by 2024, according to Reuters.
“In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China has a very symbolic meaning,” said Yuri Trunev, a Kremlin spokesman in the Russian Far East, according to the news agency.
China, buying Russian natural resources and agricultural goods, has criticized Western sanctions on Moscow.
CHINA’S “COORDINATION” WITH RUSSIA WILL NOT CHANGE.
Trucks cross the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge during an opening ceremony on Friday. (Reuters / Reuters)
The bridge reportedly took about four years and $ 342 million to build.
Rebekah Koffler, a former DIA intelligence officer and author of Putin’s Playbook: Russian Secret Plan to Defeat America, told Fox Business “Russia and China are deepening their relationship as part of a so-called ‘borderless cooperation’ that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping announced (roughly at the time) Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
IBM, MICROSOFT DISMISSED HUNDREDS OF WORKERS IN RUSSIA
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in the Kremlin in Moscow on June 5, 2019. The two countries are strengthening their relations in the framework of a “borderless” partnership. (REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina / Pool / Reuters Photos)
“Although Moscow and Beijing always make their relationship public as ‘strategic partners,’ … Russia and China are not true allies,” he said. “It’s a marriage of convenience, as Russia sees China as the No. 2 security threat, after the United States and NATO.
The bridge is about half a mile long, according to Reuters. (Reuters / Reuters)
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT FOX BUSINESS
“That being said, the increased cooperation between Russia and China, which includes joint military exercises, could pose a serious security and geopolitical challenge to the United States,” he added.