China’s Li Zhanshu, the head of the National People’s Congress and a member of the seven-strong Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, has called for increased legislative support and better integration with Russia in a virtual meeting last week attended by Valentina Ivanovna Matviyenko, chairwoman of Russia’s Federation Council, and Ivan Melnikov, deputy chairman of the State Duma. The move comes as Beijing views Moscow’s progress on certain aspects of bilateral ties as being rather slow.

An example of this is the lack of progress in agreeing tariff reductions as part of the China-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement, which was signed in 2018 to much acclaim, but is yet to be effective because no tariff changes have been implemented.

Li stressed that there needed to be improved collaboration and that China and Russia needed to “work closely within the international multilateral framework, oppose the West starting a new cold war, bullying and interference in domestic affairs.” and that there needed to be stronger legal support for cooperation between China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the Russia supported Eurasian Economic Union, which also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. That bloc effectively sits between China and the European Union and gives access to Central Asia – all markets that China wishes to develop, but Russia is more cautious to opening to China at the expense of its own trade.

During Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia in 2015, the two countries agreed to connect the belt and road with the EAEU, committing to ease the way for cooperation on investment, trade, infrastructure, and finance, yet progress has been slow.

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