Russia has signed a legally binding memorandum to build the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China and the Soyuz-Vostok transit pipeline through Mongolia, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said Tuesday after talks among the leaders of the three countries in Beijing.
“The project will allow deliveries from Russia via Mongolia of 50 billion cubic meters of gas a year,” Interfax quoted Miller as saying. The transit agreement is expected to run for 30 years.
The signing came during a trilateral summit of Russia, China and Mongolia - Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh. Talks in this format were held for the seventh time.
Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) said they reached additional commercial arrangements, including raising supplies to China via the Power of Siberia pipeline from 38 billion to 44 billion cubic meters a year, and increasing volumes under the Far Eastern Route project by 2 billion cubic meters a year from 10 billion.
Gazprom and CNPC also signed a memorandum on strategic cooperation. Payments are split 50% in rubles and 50% in Chinese yuan, Miller said.
Russia has been supplying gas to China through Power of Siberia since 2019. In the first eight months of 2025, Gazprom increased deliveries to China by 28% — to an annualized 38 billion cubic meters.
The Kremlin press service reported on Putin’s talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Xi said he was ready, together with Moscow, to promote a “more just and rational” global governance system. Putin pointed to “the strategic nature of Russia-China ties, which are at an unprecedentedly high level.”
Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov highlighted “a very important conversation between the President of Russia and Chairman Xi in a narrow format - ‘one plus four’.”
On the Russian side, the participants included Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defense Minister Andrey Belousov, Ushakov, and deputy chief of the presidential administration Maxim Oreshkin.
The agenda was to include, in particular, relations with the United States, the outcome of the summit with President Donald Trump in Alaska, and other contacts with Washington.
The Beijing–Moscow dialogue continued at Xi’s private residence, Zhongnanhai.
A day earlier, on September 1, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin, China, Putin met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders spoke for about an hour inside a Russian armored Aurus limousine. The talks then continued with delegations at the Russian residence in the Ritz-Carlton hotel.
