Russia and China are having to overcome a number of difficulties in cooperating with each other in the framework of the policy of strengthening bilateral cooperation, it was announced during Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing.
In particular, this concerns the problems of Russian companies with the banking system of China. Experts noted that a senior researcher at the Institute of Economic Policy and Problems of Economic Security at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Valery Abramov, and Assistant Professor of Stock Markets and Financial Engineering of the Department of Finance and Banking at RANHiGS, Sergey Hestanov, in an interview with correspondents of Vestnik Kavkaza noted that it is difficult to receive Chinese loans for Russian entrepreneurs now because they do not correspond to the financial traditions of China.
The head of LUKOIL, Vagit Alekperov, has spoken about these difficulties recently. "Unfortunately, we didn’t succeed in negotiations with the Chinese banks. They are willing to finance either for the purchase of crude oil or the delivery of equipment. These are the most expensive loans in the world. We don’t use such loans,’’ he said in an interview for Vedomosti.
Earlier, the deputy head of VTB, Yury Soloviev, said that Chinese banks are wary of cooperating with Russian banks and companies after the introduction of sanctions against Russia by the European Union and the US.
"The existing cooperation has some difficulties. The main problem that hampers the development of bilateral cooperation is the controversial position of China regarding the Russian banks after the introduction of the US and EU sanctions. Now the majority of Chinese banks don’t conduct interbank transactions with Russian banks. In addition, Chinese banks have considerably reduced participation in international trade transactions and in particular trade finance,’’ National News Service cites him as saying.
According to Valery Abramov, difficulties with Chinese loans are primarily due to the Western sanctions against Russia. "Expensive Chinese loans aren’t a problem. The problem is that the Bank of China works in accordance with the financial restrictions imposed by the US government. They cooperate with the US policy and demand various guarantees in this regard, including governmental ones,’’ he explained.
According to the expert, Chinese banks are generally public and they consider that cooperation with Russian state companies is a significant risk.
