Global Business Links, Trade Routes Being Reoriented to East, Global South, Putin Says
Christina Glazkova
Writer / Editor
The Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) runs this week through Friday. It is being hosted by the Far Eastern Federal University in Russia's Pacific coast city of Vladivostok. Sputnik is the general information partner of the EEF 2024.
SputnikGlobal business ties and trade routes are increasingly shifting to the East and the Global South, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during the plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
"The challenges we have been facing recently and those objective trends — and this is the most important — that are taking effect in the global economy, when main business connections, trade routes, and the overall trajectory of development are increasingly reorienting toward the East and the Global South," Putin said.
Overall, the Russian economy is growing steadily, expanding by 4.6% in the first six months, while last year the GDP growth rate was 3.4%, the president noted.
The president added that the Russian Far East has become Russia's "flagship" in this
new global economic reality."Our Far Eastern regions are giving [us] direct access to these growing, perspective markets," Putin said.
Russia will expand its partnership with foreign partners, continuing to strengthen the country's position in the world, Putin said.
"And, of course, we will expand ties between the Russian Far East and our entire country with foreign partners, friends, with states and companies that are interested in reliable, long-term, mutually beneficial cooperation and thereby continue to strengthen Russia's position in the world," he noted.
Speaking about international cooperation, Putin underscored Russia's relations with its BRICS partners are developing very successfully.
"As for our relations with BRICS, they are developing, developing very successfully ... Now we have expanded the circle of participants, this is a very good process: more than 30 countries today," Putin said, adding that some countries are ready to join the association.
Furthermore, the use of
national currencies in settlements between Russia and BRICS partners is approximately 65%, according to the Russian leader. Moreover, the situation in the global economy is changing; countries of the Global South account for 50% of global GDP, Putin added.
At the same time, he stressed that Russia never refused to conduct financial transactions in dollars but had to use other currencies in its trade exchanges after that option was denied to it.
"We are not pursuing a policy of de-dollarization. We did not, in fact, refuse to settle in dollars; we were refused settlements, and we were simply forced to look for other options," Putin said.
The president noted that the United States had denied Russia the option to use the dollar in the hope that the Russian economy would collapse.
"The US economy is powerful, good; its structure compares favorably with the others. But the volume of People's Republic of China's economy is larger; the US is in the second place," the president added.
An important topic in the president’s speech was the special military operation. Residents of the border regions of Russia are
suffering from terrorist attacks from Ukraine; first of all, we need to think about them.
"First of all, we must think about the people who, of course, are going through serious hardships and suffering from these terrorist attacks [from Ukraine]. The sacred duty of the armed forces is to do everything to kick the enemy out of these territories and reliably protect our citizens. The whole country, of course, should do everything to support people," Putin said.
Kiev, having launched an attack on the Kursk region, wanted to stop Russia's offensive in the
Donbass, but nothing happened, Putin said.
"The enemy's goal was to make us nervous, transfer troops from one sector to another, and stop our offensive in key areas, primarily in Donbass, the liberation of which is our primary goal," Putin said.
Russia's offensive in the special operation zone is not being contained, the president stated, adding that the number of people signing contracts with the Russian armed forces has increased.
Moreover, the Russian armed forces have accelerated their progress in the special military operation in Ukraine.
"By redeploying fairly large and well-trained units to the [Russian-Ukrainian] border areas, the enemy has weakened itself in key areas and our troops have accelerated offensive operations," Putin said.
The president also stated that the Russian forces had stabilized the situation and started pushing the enemy out of the Russian border areas.
He noted that Russian forces wanted to deplete the enemy's potential, leading to its collapse along the entire frontline.
"One can only imagine what might happen if we responded in kind [to the Ukrainian shelling of the Kursk and Zaporozhye nuclear power plants, what might happen to this entire part of Europe," Putin added.
Commenting on possible negotiations between Moscow and Kiev, Putin said that Russia understands who it is dealing with, noting that Ukraine easily violates its obligations.
"We understand who we are dealing with. People who do not value, who treat the interests of other countries and peoples without any respect, such people, unfortunately, exist. They easily violate all the obligations they have taken on, even the documents they have signed," he explained.
If Ukraine has a desire to conduct negotiations, Russia has not refused, but they will be conducted on the basis of the agreements fixed in Istanbul, the head of state said. He added that the Ukrainian leadership does not think about its people and behaves like aliens or foreigners.
At the same time, the leaders of
China, Brazil, and India sincerely seek to help find out the details of the process of resolving the Ukrainian conflict.
"We respect our friends and partners, who, I believe, are sincerely interested in resolving all issues related to this conflict, first of all, the People's Republic of China, Brazil, and India. I am constantly in contact with our colleagues on this issue, and I have no doubt that the leaders of these countries, we have trusting relations with them, sincerely strive to help sort out all the details of this complex process," Putin said.
Wrapping up the topic, Putin thanked the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia for his assistance in the
exchange of Russian citizens."At the first stage, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia took an active part in this work, for which we are also grateful to him, since this eventually led to the return of our citizens to their homeland," he said.
Many countries took part in the work regarding the prisoner exchange, Putin added.
In his speech, Putin also spoke in detail about Russian gas supplies. The president highlighted that Russia has never refused to transit gas through Ukraine.
"As for Ukraine, we are not stopping this transit, oddly enough," Putin said.
Russia's energy giant
Gazprom intended to fulfill all obligations under long-term contracts, including transit, Putin said.
"We and Gazprom company intend to fulfill all its obligations to our customers with whom there are long-term contracts. But there, one of the mandatory components of this joint work is transit. There is a transit contract that ends on December 31 of this year," Putin said.
However, Russian natural gas exports to
Europe will decrease if Ukraine fails to renew its gas transit agreement with Moscow. At the same time, Putin reminded that one line of the Nord Stream still can operate, and Germany can reach an agreement with Russia and receive gas, adding that Moscow is ready to supply gas to Europe, but the EU needs to agree on this issue within itself.
Putin also said that Russian gas could be pumped to Europe via other routes, perhaps through the Blue Stream or TurkStream pipelines, which run under the
Black Sea. He said that Russia would be making deals with other countries and increasing gas exports to China.
The increase in gas supplies from Russia to China is not related to the Ukrainian events but to the growth of the Chinese economy, Putin underscored.
"I have already mentioned that we are reaching the capacity for supplies to the People's Republic of China. As for supplies to Central Asia and Iran, this is also not related; I want it to be clear; it is not directly related to the Ukrainian events," the Russian leader stated.
Iran has been asking Russia for gas supplies for a long time, and these are quite feasible projects, Putin said.
"Iran has been asking us for gas supplies for a long time; it is also a very convenient for us... I believe that this is a feasible project, bearing in mind that the markets are huge in neighboring countries with Iran. It is just a huge need. There are different opportunities here and we will explore different markets," Putin said.
Overall, the volume of Russian gas exports will gradually recover; there is no doubt about it, according to the president.
"There are different opportunities here, and we will explore different markets; we will work according to our plans; we will dilute, as I have already said. We will gradually restore, of course, the volume of sales. There is no doubt about it," Putin said.
Moreover, Russian
energy exports cannot be halted because the global economy will not be able to handle this.
"Whoever might try shutting down our energy and however they might do it, this would be impossible because production is at its limit, driven by global demand. It is simply impossible. Just shut down everything tomorrow — our gas, oil — the global economy will not withstand such a shutdown," Putin said.
Aside from the energy field, Putin noted that Russia is also one of the world leaders in
cryptocurrency mining."Today, Russia is already one of the world leaders in mining, and this is due to the surplus of energy capacity in Siberia," he said.
Putin also remarked on the recent detention of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, stating that Russia had no claims against him.
"We had no complaints against him, none, but I know that many countries had complaints given that the platform is used in a certain way by some people and some structures that can cause damage to the economy or security of certain states with their activities," Putin said.
Commenting on
Durov's detention, the president said that the actions of the French authorities are not very clear and are selective.
"I think that the Russian government might also have had some questions for him [Durov]," Putin added.
When asked if they met, Putin said that he had met Durov only once in Moscow many years ago, adding that the Telegram CEO talked about his business plans.
"We never maintained any contacts. Why we should meet in Baku, I do not really understand ... I did not even know he was there; I had no idea," Putin said, adding that he thought Durov lived in Moscow.
If Durov had a desire to meet him, he could meet in Moscow, Putin added.
During the plenary session, the president stated that Russia will also support US presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as recommended by US President Biden, adding that it is not up to Russia to determine a favorite candidate in the US presidential race.
Putin also reminded that Trump imposed a huge number of sanctions against Russia, and he hopes that Harris will not repeat this.
The last but not the least important topic in Putin’s speech was the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The head of state assured that
Russia will do everything possible to resolve the crisis.
"But I repeat once again, we will do everything that depends on us. I spoke about this at a recent meeting with Mr. [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas; he was in Moscow to contribute to the settlement of this long-standing and very serious crisis," Putin said.
He added that the
US is not a country with neutral positions regarding the Middle East crisis.
Moreover, Russia supports the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, the president added.
"As for the humanitarian issue, of course, we are trying to resolve issues related to hostages, and we are achieving certain results here, which we are very happy about, and we will try to do this in the future," Putin said.