Chinese President Xi Jinping will not hold a separate bilateral meeting with Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, scheduled for September 12-13. The announcement was made on Thursday by Yuri Ushakov, adviser to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reports the TASS agency, cited by The Moscow Times.
“At the BRICS summit in New Delhi, a bilateral meeting (between Putin and Xi Jinping) is not planned,” said Ushakov, who however suggested that Putin and Xi Jinping might “talk on the sidelines” of the summit.
“They will be able to hold a so-called informal meeting, standing up,\” explained the Russian president’s advisor.
The last meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping took place on August 31 in Bishkek, during a session of the Council of Heads of State of the member states of the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization).
However, the discussions in Bishkek did not bring progress to the Power of Siberia-2 project, which envisages the supply of up to 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year to China.
According to the Chinese publication South China Morning Post, which quoted sources familiar with the situation, the Russian and Chinese sides have not managed to reach an agreement on the price. China expects to pay about 50 dollars per thousand cubic meters – the same price as Russian consumers, or 120-130 dollars – at the price for Russian industrial consumers.
Instead, Russia proposes to focus on the gas cost through Power of Siberia-1 – approximately 250-260 dollars per thousand cubic meters. This is about 40% lower than Gazprom’s prices for non-CIS country buyers, which are around 420 dollars.