Putin Talks Up Trade & 'No Limits Partnership' In Harbin Visit

(MNI) London - Speaking in the city of Harbin, in China's far northeast, Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the recently-announced increase US tariffs on a number of Chinese products - including electric vehicles - 'were an example of unfair competition'. Putin posits that 'Washington imposed the tariffs because Chinese electric cars had got better'.

• Putin met with Chinese VP Han Zheng during his trip to Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province and a city with close links to Russia.
• While Putin's talks with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on 16 May focused on sizeable global issues, with frequent references to the perceived actions of the West, the Harbin trip appears to be more focused on encouraging cultural links and trade between China and Russia. The embedding of the 'no-limits partnership' between the two countries is viewed as crucial for propping up the Russian economy amid strict Western sanctions on Moscow.
• Earlier, Liu Bin, director of the Department of Europe and Central Asia of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, claimed that both China and Russia 'will continue to adhere to the principle of 'non-alignment with blocs, non-confrontation and non-targeting of third parties'.