Economic relations between Russia and China – Increasing inter-dependency?

The economic cooperation between Russia and China has increased notably during past couple of decades, although from a very low level. Despite the increase, economic dependency between countries remains relatively low and it is rather a one-sided dependency of Russia from China than a deeper inter-dependency. The economic relations have largely been characterized by traditional trade based on comparative advantage, whereas investment flows between countries have been relatively small. Since Russia’s relations with the western countries have deteriorated, it has aimed at closer ties with China. The high-level relations are probably better than ever, but in practice the development has been more modest. Economic cooperation between Russia and China is likely to continue increasing gradually, but there are many challenges for deepening the relations and raising mutual inter-dependency.