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Russia and China have inaugurated a new cross-border bridge in the Far East in a bid to further boost trade and counter rising US-led sanctions as Washington and Beijing traded threats of military conflict over Taiwan.
The bridge linking the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk to the Chinese city of Heihe across the Amur River – known in China as Heilongjiang – was opened on Friday with a distance of just over one kilometer that cost 19 billion rubles ($342 million) to construct, RIA news agency reported.
“In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China carries a special symbolic meaning,” said the Kremlin’s representative in the Russian Far East, Yuri Trutnev, in remarks marking the opening of the trade route.
Russian authorities further underlined that the bridge would bring Moscow and Beijing closer together by expanding trade after the two powers declared a “no limits” partnership back in February, just prior to the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.
Russia’s Transport Minister Vitaly Savelyev further underlined that the bridge would help increase bilateral annual trade between the two countries to more than 1 million tons of goods.
China’s Vice Premier Hu Chunhua also welcomed the development, saying during opening ceremonies for the bridge that Beijing seeks to deepen practical cooperation with Russia in all areas.
The bridge had been under construction since 2016 and was completed in May 2020 but its opening was postponed over cross-border COVID-19 restrictions, according to BTS-MOST, the firm building the bridge on the Russian side.
BTS-MOST further explained that freight traffic on the bridge would shorten the travel distance of Chinese goods to western Russia by 1,500 kilometers (930 miles).
According to the report, vehicles crossing the bridge must pay a toll of 8,700 rubles ($150), a price that is expected to drop as toll fees begin to offset the cost of construction.
Russia announced in April it expected commodity flows with China to surge, and trade with Beijing to reach $200 billion by 2024.
China remains a major purchaser of Russian natural resources and agricultural products.
The development came amid Western criticism of Beijing’s refusal to condemn Moscow’s military operations in Ukraine while also censuring US-led sanctions against Russia.
Earlier this year, Washington claimed that Beijing appeared poised to help Russia in its “war” against Ukraine.
Since then, however, American officials have noted that while they remain wary about China’s long-standing support for Russia in general, the military and economic support that they worried about has not come to pass, at least for now.
