BEIJING — China and Russia agreed to a major 30-year natural gas deal on Wednesday that would send gas from Siberia by pipeline to China, according to the China National Petroleum Corporation.
The announcement caps a decade-long negotiation and helps bring Russia and China closer than they have been in many years. The contract was driven to a conclusion by the presence of President Xi Jinping of China and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Shanghai for the last two days.
The deal is expected to be worth about $400 billion, said James Henderson, a senior analyst at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.
Mr. Putin has been eager to diversify Russia’s gas sales to Asia and away from stagnant European markets. At the same time, he is eager to demonstrate that Russia, in the face of sanctions over the annexation of Crimea, is not dependent on the West.
And Mr. Xi, who has met Mr. Putin seven times since assuming power, was willing to help the Russian leader, said Shi Yinhong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
Political considerations, including Mr. Putin’s coming visit to Europe in early June — when he will meet with President Obama and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel — were probably a vital impetus to getting the contract over the finish line, energy experts said.
Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin met on the sidelines of a conference of Asian nations. During his address to the gathering, Mr. Xi proposed a new Asian structure for security cooperation based on a regional group that would include Russia and Iran, but exclude the United States.
The proposal is another indication that Russia and China, though wary of each other, are interested in working together outside the confines of global and regional institutions dominated by the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/world/asia/china-russia-gas-deal.html?hp
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