Two years after its completion, Russia and China inaugurated last Friday, June 10, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge, the name of the two cities separated by the Amur River. However, it has been closed since 2020, mainly due to the pandemic and the zero-case policy in China.
However, it has now been opened to traffic, although the Xi Jinping government remains a staunch supporter of the strategic policy it has adopted in the fight against COVID-19. Thus, there are many who believe that the opening of this bridge at this very moment could be a way for China to help Russia evade the sanctions imposed by the European Union due to the invasion of Ukraine by the regime of Vladimir Putin.
It should be noted that China was one of the few countries in the world that did not condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and if there were any doubts as to which side this Asian country could be on in this conflict, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge, just over a kilometer extension, now seems to put an end to them, not least because during the inauguration both governments made a point of remembering that they are committed to “a bilateral partnership without limits”.
The bridge, which cost US$330 million, the vast majority financed by the government of Vladimir Putin, will be used exclusively for the transport of goods and will have the capacity for 630 trucks, 164 buses and 68 light vehicles to cross it daily. It should be noted that transport between the two cities depended on boats or temporary roads built on ice during the winter months. In this way, the bridge will provide a route between the two banks that is available 365 days a year.
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“This is not an isolated event, it is part of a major work being carried out by the Russian government to develop transport corridors to the east. In today’s divided world, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe bridge between Russia and China carries special symbolic meaning. The development of economic ties with China and with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region allows creating the basis for stability and peace in the region”, said Yury Trutnev, Vice President of the Russian Government, during the inauguration of a bridge that construction began eight years ago and after some delays and restructuring, it has now been inaugurated.
Even so, due to the pandemic and the zero-case policy, with the obligation of a quarantine for those who arrive on the other side of the border, trade growth may still not reach the peak that everyone expects, as revealed by Yekaterina Kireeva, the Russian economic official. from the Amir region: “China’s high demands due to the COVID-19 pandemic limit us a bit. However, this is just the first day of a connection that will be a landmark in the commercial future of the two countries.”
Ties far beyond bilateral trade
In addition to trade, the friendship between the two countries led to the fact that after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, China maintained an ambiguous position on the matter, asking for respect “for the territorial integrity of all countries” and “for the legitimate security concerns of Russia”, also expressing opposition to the sanctions imposed against Moscow.
This bond, in fact, is so evident that the two countries have already carried out some military maneuvers together, specifically in August of last year, when more than 10,000 soldiers were in exercises in an undisclosed location in China. And already last month, the armed forces of the two nations carried out a military exercise that lasted 13 hours, with an air patrol in the Sea of Japan, the East China Sea and the Western Pacific. According to the Chinese Ministry of Defense website, these exercises involved Russian Tu-95 and Chinese Xian H-6 strategic bombers.
