WASHINGTON, May 21. /TASS/. The energy crisis triggered by the US-Iran war has significantly increased the attractiveness of the Power of Siberia-2 project for China, Charles Freeman, a retired US diplomat, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, US charge d’affaires to China and Thailand, told TASS as he commented on the results of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Beijing.
"The energy crisis created by the Israeli-American attack on Iran and the subsequent decision by the United States to blockade the Strait of Hormuz has greatly increased the attractiveness of the Power of Siberia pipeline, which would consolidate the mutually beneficial economic interdependence between China and Russia," he said. "President Putin’s visit to Beijing comes at a time when China could use assurances of greater security for its supplies of natural gas and the Russian economy could use a boost from the massive investment this project will generate," the expert noted, adding that "the pressures that American hostility has imposed on both means that it should be easier for them to find a mutually satisfactory accommodation on previously unsettled issues of pricing for Power of Siberia gas, enabling the project to go forward."
