Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, China and Russia have established a relatively close energy cooperation relationship.
In this cooperation, the two sides are win-win in themselves, and the two countries have also signed a series of agreements on energy cooperation.
But lately, there have been problems, and neither Mongolia nor Russia seems willing to continue to work on the energy level, intending to kick the ball to China.
So what's going on here?
1. Mongolia wants a piece of the pie
The Prime Minister of Mongolia recently claimed that new problems may arise in the energy pipeline project between China and Russia, and the completion date of the project will be further delayed.
And Mongolia is doing this, to put it bluntly, it wants to take a share of the Chinese and Russian energy **.
Because China and Russia are now engaged in energy, they don't want to play with Mongolia somewhat.
Originally, the energy transportation pipelines built by China and Russia would pass through Mongolia, which is in Mongolia's national interests from an economic point of view.
As long as the transportation pipeline between China and Russia passes through Mongolia, Mongolia will be able to rely on this intermediary fee.
After all, if you use other people's Mongolian land, you must pay rent.
Moreover, these pipelines are built on the territory of Mongolia, and they also need to be maintained.
It is not practical for China and Russia to keep people stationed on Chinese soil to build pipelines, so it is possible that the maintenance of these pipelines will be outsourced to Mongolia, which will also make Mongolia money.
But in recent years, Mongolia's third-neighbor policy has also caused dissatisfaction in China and Russia.
Mongolia could have relied entirely on China and Russia to develop its economy, but Mongolia wanted to establish cooperative relations with Western countries led by the United States, and even engaged in large-scale military exercises with the United States.
Mongolia's approach would pose a threat to the border security of China and Russia.
After all, Mongolia has a fairly long border with both China and Russia, and it is too dangerous for the US military to appear here.
Mongolia's approach to eating inside and outside naturally makes China and Russia think more about building energy transportation pipelines.
What if we build a pipeline into Mongolia, and Mongolia wants to cooperate with other countries to blow up our pipeline? This economic loss is immeasurable, and the United States and Western countries have indeed done this, and the Nord Stream pipeline is a lesson from the past.
Second, the Russian side has other ideas
Russia, on the other hand, has other ideas about China's energy cooperation projects.
Of course, the differences between China and Russia are not particularly big, it is nothing more than the lack of negotiations on energy.
Russia hopes that we can give a higher ** when buying their gas.
This is also reasonable, after all, the United States and Western countries are still blockading Russia, and Russia is suffering from serious economic difficulties, and they need a lot of money to fill the financial gap.
So Russia naturally wants us to come up with a higher ** and buy their energy.
Now there is no dispute between China and Russia, at most it is just a commercial negotiation.
Moreover, this so-called dispute between China and Russia can be easily resolved.
Because neither China nor Russia will give up cooperation with each other. Establishing a stable energy** partnership with Russia is the most in the interests of China's economy.
Western countries led by the United States are still very hostile to China, and they are more inclined to suppress China.
Therefore, we must engage in energy diversification strategies to maintain our own energy security. The establishment of energy cooperation with Russia will have the greatest benefits for the stability of China's energy transportation routes.
After all, China and Russia are land neighbors, and the two countries share a long border.
To buy Russian energy, it can be shipped directly to China, which is not very risky. Anyway, it is definitely more convenient, fast and safe than by sea.
And for Russia, cooperation with China is irreplaceable.
After the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Western countries have basically stopped energy with Russia**, because Western countries want to force Russia to compromise through economic blockade.
So now there are not many countries in the world that are willing to buy Russian energy.
China is the only country that has a long way to go and maintains a stable friendship with Russia, and there is also a large energy gap, so the Sino-Russian cooperation itself is a perfect fit.
Under the circumstance that the strengthening of energy cooperation between the two sides is the general trend, even if there will be some disputes in the discussion of energy imports, such disputes will not be too serious, and the two sides will not care too much about the problem.
Conclusion:
In the foreseeable future, Sino-Russian relations will continue to develop in a positive direction.
The friendship between the two countries, whether for China or Russia, is unshakable at this stage.
As long as the United States and Western countries still regard China and Russia as adversaries, they must be strategically consistent and share the pressure from the United States and Western countries.
Whether Mongolia wants to cooperate with China and Russia is their own question.
Anyway, for China and Russia, it doesn't make much difference whether there is Mongolia or not.