The main obstacle for closer relations between Beijing and Moscow is the latter's economic crisis, a Russian sinologist said yesterday.
A lack of foreign investment had put many projects into question, said Professor Vladimir Myasnikov, deputy director of the Institute of Far Eastern Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Chinese companies which wanted to place orders with Russian firms often found the Russians could not deliver because they were unable to pay their own engineers and workers, he told a Hong Kong luncheon organised by the Asia Society.
The countries had resolved their differences over sensitive political issues, such as border disputes, but that had not led to a blossoming of commercial ties.
Bilateral trade grew slowly from US$5 billion (HK$38.7 billion) in 1996 to US$6 billion last year.
Ties in the latter half of the century had been overshadowed by different views of Marxist principles, border disputes and arguments over nuclear weapons proliferation.
However, recently China and Russia had begun to redefine and strengthen their relationship, the professor said.