Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off a two-day visit to Beijing on May 19, arriving with a high-powered delegations containing top officials and leading businessmen.

The trip follows on less than a week after US President Donald Trump made the same journey, also with a high power delegation of leading US CEOs, but was forced to eat humble pie by Chinese President Xi Jinping and came away with almost nothing to show for the meeting.

Putin arrived in Beijing to bookmark US president Trump's trip a week early and underscore the increasingly tight relations between Russia and China.

Putin, by contrast, has a busy agenda. Russo-China trade has soared in recent years to move than $200bn of mutual trade turnover, as China steps in to become one of Russia’s major suppliers, circumnavigating the extreme sanctions regime imposed by the US and Europe.

And he was welcomed with much pomp and ceremony, more than Trump received on deplaning after his arrival last week. Crowds of Chinese children danced and waved Russian and Chinese flags as Putin walked down the stairs to a large crowd of top Chinese officials.

Top of the agenda will be talks to complete the construction of the Power of Siberia 2 (POS2) gas pipeline, opening a new east-facing energy export corridor for Russia. But the two leaders are expected to talk about the war in the Middle East and continuing developing their multipolar vision of the world, that is being promoted via the various non-Western multilateral organizations that include the BRICS+, G20, and a slew of Global Emerging Markets Institutions (GEMIs) to improve economic and security amongst the members of the Global South.

The Russian delegation was one of the largest and most senior Russian business delegations, underlining Moscow’s growing economic dependence on Beijing and the strategic importance of bilateral co-operation amid western sanctions.

The delegation includes five deputy prime ministers, eight cabinet ministers and the heads of many of Russia’s largest state-owned and private companies spanning the energy, finance, industrial, transport and technology sectors. Kremlin officials said the visit was focused on strengthening co-operation in trade, investment, energy and the development of Russia’s Far East.

Among the most prominent attendees were Igor Sechin, chief executive of Rosneft, Alexei Miller, chief executive of Gazprom (MCX: GAZP), and Leonid Mikhelson, chairman of Novatek (MCX: NVTK).

Putin’s close friend Gennady Timchenko, the billionaire co-founder of Novatek and major shareholder in petrochemicals group Sibur, also joined the delegation, alongside Rosatom chief executive Alexey Likhachev and Roscosmos head Yury Borisov.

The presence of senior energy executives were all connected to the importance of not only the POS2 project, but also the reorientation of Russia’s oil exports to Asia, after the EU banned the import of Russian oil and products with twin sanctions at the end of 2022. Between them, China and India have largely replaced the departed European customers for Russian oil exports.

Russia is China's biggest supplier of crude oil imports, which stood at 8.97mn tonnes last month, or 2.18mn barrels per day, up 11% y/y, according to customs data published on May 20.

Alexander Novak, Russia’s deputy prime minister responsible for energy policy, has been tasked with co-ordinating and briefing on “core China-Russia energy cooperation affairs”, according to materials released by Russian officials.

Denis Manturov, first deputy prime minister, is responsible for matters linked to the bilateral investment co-operation commission, while Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko is overseeing preparations for meetings between the two governments.

Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, who also serves as presidential envoy to Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, is in the team to promote cross-border development projects linking Russia’s Far East and China’s north-eastern provinces. Moscow has increasingly promoted the region as a destination for Chinese investment in logistics, mining, agriculture and infrastructure.

The veteran Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accompanied Putin and is expected to hold consultations with his counterpart Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met Putin at the airport on this arrival, on diplomatic co-ordination and geopolitical issues.

Putin’s chief foreign policy advisor Yury Ushakov oversaw summit scheduling and the drafting of bilateral agreements.

The delegation also included regional governors from Russia’s border territories, university rectors and state media executives, signalling a broader push to expand co-operation in education, culture and information policy as Moscow and Beijing continue to deepen what both sides describe as a “no limits” partnership.