GT Voice: Russia’s railway upgrade a boost to trade with China

Global Times 
Aug 02, 2021 (Russia)

A cross-border China-Russia railroad bridge is under construction on Sunday in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. The bridge will link Heihe in Heilongjiang Province with the Russian Far East city of Blagoveshchensk across the Heilongjiang (Amur) River. The construction of the bridge started in 2016, and it is scheduled to start carrying traffic this October. The whole route covers 19.9 kilometers, with 6.5 kilometers in China and 13.4 kilometers in Russia, media reports said. Photo: VCG

Russia is engaged in the upgrade of its Trans-Siberian railway and other Far East rail network infrastructure, a strategic move that Voice of America(VOA) said in a Monday report Russia has taken to strengthen ties with China against the background of the latter's souring relations with the US and Australia.

The regional economic impact and significance of an improved Far East railway network will be enormous. Thus, a reading of the reported plan to remodel Russia's rail network simply from a political perspective seems far-fetched and misleading.

For starters, increased transportation capacity as a result of upgraded Far East railway infrastructure will directly promote the economic and trade cooperation between China and Russia. Ever since the deterioration of the China-Australia relationship, Russia has been widely seen as a potential supplier replacing Australia when it comes to exporting resource products to China. But the shortage of rail transportation capacity makes it hard for this potential to be fully released.

If the reported upgrade of Far East rail infrastructure could help Russia export more coal and agricultural products to China, the Russian economy will certainly receive a boost and China will also see a remarkable progress in its supply-chain diversification push.

Source
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1230338.shtml