Free Republic

Russia and China jointly oppose "discriminatory" sanctions in global trade that hinder the world's socio-economic development, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a written interview with China's official Xinhua news agency. The two countries will continue to work to reduce mutual trade barriers, Putin said in the interview published on Saturday on the eve of a visit to Russia's biggest trading partner. Putin will be in China from Sunday to Wednesday, in a four-day visit that the Kremlin has called "unprecedented."

China's President Xi Jinping affirmed his "no limits" partnership in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, China's state media reported, on the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The leaders held the talks as U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for a quick deal to end the Ukraine war, raising the prospect that Washington could draw a wedge between Xi and Putin to focus on competing with the world's second largest economy. The call appeared aimed at dispelling any such prospects - the two leaders underscored the durability and the "long-term" nature of their...

China, Tanzania and Zambia signed an initial agreement to rehabilitate a decades-old railway aimed at improving the rail-sea transportation in resource-rich East Africa, Chinese state media said on Wednesday. President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of the memorandum of understanding on refurbishing the 1,860 kms (1,156 mile) Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) railway with the Tanzanian and Zambian presidents, who were in Beijing attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation... The single-track TAZARA railway was built between 1970 and 1975 through an interest-free loan from China, offering a cargo transport route from Zambia's copper and cobalt mines to the sea on Tanzania's...