Bashkiria Leads in Agreements with China

Bashkiria is among the leaders in the number of agreements with China. This was announced at the 5th Council for Interregional Cooperation meeting in the Volga-Yangtze Format in Kazan by Igor Komarov, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Volga Federal District. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin and representatives of 14 Russian and 6 Chinese regions attended the event. Prime Minister Andrey Nazarov headed the delegation of Bashkortostan.

To date, 54 framework agreements on cooperation in the economic, scientific, technical, and humanitarian spheres have been concluded between the regions of the Volga Federal District and the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River in China.

According to the results of 2024, trade turnover between the regions of the Volga Federal District and China increased by 6.9% compared to the previous year. For the district regions, China's share in foreign trade was 23%.

"China, with a share of 25%, ranks first among our foreign partners. According to the results of January of this year alone, foreign trade indicators increased by more than 50% compared to the beginning of 2024,” Andrey Nazarov informed.

Bashkortostan joined the implementation of the Volga-Yangtze project in 2013, the press service of the RB government recalled. Within the framework of this format, cooperation agreements were concluded with the Chinese provinces of Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Hubei, and the city of Chongqing. The relations between China and Bashkiria have entered a new development phase. Thus, a bonded zone has been created on the territory of the PRC - a duty-free warehouse for goods from the Russian region. The Bashkir-Chinese Trading House operates to resolve logistics issues, cross-border payments, and technology transfer. Today, mechanical engineering and chemical industry products are supplied from the republic to China. The INMAN, Ufa Motor-Building Production Association, and Bashkir Soda Company are among them.

The supply of agricultural goods is also actively developing. In 2024, Bashkiria exported almost 45 thousand tons of agricultural products to China for 18 million dollars.

According to Andrey Nazarov, one key aspect of the development of bilateral cooperation is direct air service between Ufa and major Chinese cities. In 2025, a direct flight was launched from the capital of Bashkortostan to the city of Sanya, and the issue of organizing Ufa-Urumqi and Ufa-Shenyang flights is being worked out.

An oil and fat plant is being built in the republic with investors from Sichuan Province. A system for comfortably selecting a reliable business partner for Chinese participants in the Volga-Yangtze economic balance center project is being formed. A special Corporation for economic, scientific, and cultural interaction with the PRC is also being created in Bashkortostan. In November 2025, the Russian-Chinese "Strategic Day 100x100" will be held in Guangzhou and Shenzhen with the Roscongress Foundation. The heads of the hundred largest Russian companies will come to the event. Andrey Nazarov proposed holding a strategic meeting of businesses on the platform of traditional Russian and Chinese cultures as part of this event. Andrey Nazarov emphasized that Bashkortostan will offer an individual work program for each of the hundred Chinese corporations.

According to the speaker, the development of scientific cooperation between Bashkortostan and China deserves special attention. The republican universities actively cooperate with their colleagues from China and implement exchange programs for postgraduates and doctoral students. The key mechanism of interaction in this area is the Volga-Yangtze University Association. It unites 88 universities from Russia and China, including the Bashkir State Medical University. Bashkortostan can also offer Chinese companies cooperation with the Eurasian Scientific and Educational Center campus, where the IQ Park and the Genome Center operate, and research is conducted in genetics, biotechnology, and personalized medicine. Expanding cooperation with China, including in the Volga-Yangtze format, is one of the government's key tasks, said the Prime Minister of Bashkortostan.

Author: Elina Akhmetova