China, Russia discuss boosting transport links as Middle East conflict disrupts shipping

As heightened conflict in the Middle East disrupts global shipping, China and Russia are considering deeper cooperation on logistics – including use of the Arctic shipping route – to secure a more resilient supply chain.At the inaugural China-Russia Logistics Business Forum held in Moscow on Monday, officials and business leaders discussed bolstering transport and infrastructure ties, calling such cooperation essential as geopolitical tensions reshape global supply chains, Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported on Tuesday.Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Department of Economic Cooperation at Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, called for global instability to be factored into the development of bilateral relations.“We are obliged to take all of this into account,” he said at the forum. “That is precisely why independent payment mechanisms and logistics between our countries, including transit through friendly countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), are a perfect example of how this can work.”Birichevsky said the Middle East situation revealed how the global economy and logistics networks were vulnerable to the unilateral actions of those fuelling wars.The region, already fraught with conflict, saw a significant escalation in late February after the US and Israel launched air strikes on Iran.The EAEU is a five-nation customs union consisting of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, while the CIS is a broader regional organisation that includes nine former Soviet republics.