News of the agreement went viral on Chinese social media, despite similar moves having been made 15 years ago that went largely unnoticed and did not generate a significant rise in trade activity.

The new arrangement comes as Russia, facing unprecedented sanctions from Western countries, is relying on China as a trade lifeline. And next week, a large delegation led by Russia’s premier will attend a bilateral business forum in Shanghai, further consolidating ties.

“Vladivostok is a very sensitive city for Russia, as the port has both commercial and military uses,” said Yang Jin, a researcher focusing on Russia and Central Asia at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). “So, Russia granting its access to China can be symbolic. It signals that Sino-Russian collaboration in [Russia’s] far east will be further strengthened.”

But some analysts have said poor infrastructure at the port, as well as land checkpoints between the two countries, will serve to curtail the effects of the arrangement, which will require further cooperation on both sides.

Two Zhejiang ports – the Yongzhou Container Terminal in Zhoushan and the Port of Zhapu in Jiaxing – have been designated as the receiving ports, according to the China customs notice.

China customs on Monday called the move a “mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation model”, vowing to support its development on the basis of follow-up evaluations.

“International transit is a globally accepted customs service in which China has accumulated many years of practical experience,” a press release from the agency said.

Trade volume between China and Russia has been surging since Western countries began imposing sanctions on Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Demand has subsequently risen for container ships from China’s southeast coast to Vladivostok.

Given that these ships can also carry more cargo on the return journey, Jilin province asked Beijing last year to add Vladivostok as a transit port.

China started designating foreign ports as domestic transit hubs in 2007, so as to ease the transport constraints in the northeastern region – comprising the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, and part of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The region is a major grain-producing area, supplying all of China with rice, corn and soybeans. Such lower-margin bulk commodities are sensitive to transport costs, so water shipping is the primary choice.

But cargo from inland Heilongjiang and Jilin needs to travel up to 1,000km (621 miles) by land before reaching the nearest Chinese seaports in Liaoning province, which is one of the main bottlenecks restricting the economic development of this region.

Going through Vladivostok instead could cut the distance by around 80 per cent – to roughly 200km – saving time and money.

The Port of Vladivostok has been one of the foreign transit hubs for domestic shipments from Heilongjiang since 2007, according to China customs.

Despite rising demand for Chinese goods from Russia since last year, major shipowners – both foreign and Chinese – have suspended or slashed services on Russian routes due to sanction fears and rising risks and costs.

A Tianjin-based shipping agent who gave only his surname as Xia said vessels now running the routes from Chinese ports to Vladivostok are mostly small ones from non-mainstream shipowners, given the short distance.

Meanwhile, major land ports on the Sino-Russian border have recently been seeing rising congestion. Trucks waiting for clearance at Zabaykalsky checkpoints, opposite to the Chinese border city of Manzhouli, have formed queues as long as 10km, with the estimated waiting time up to several weeks, according to Russian newspaper Izvestia.

While this may impede the actual effect of Vladivostok for Jilin in the short term, it can be solved as soon as China helps improve the infrastructure on the Russian side, Xia said.

The capacity of the Port of Vladivostok is another constraint, as the infrastructure is outdated and cargo-handling efficiency is low, according to shipping agents and analysts.

“The loading and unloading fee [at the Port of Vladivostok] is expensive, and the infrastructure is not good, so the actual implementation of the plan will require more effort,” said a shipping analyst at a Chinese securities firm who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk to the media.

Yang from the CASS said the approval is just the first step, and further discussions and collaboration will be needed to improve the infrastructure and simplify procedures.

During President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow in March, the two countries released a joint statement saying they would work to strengthen connectivity in Eurasia.

Designating Vladivostok as a transit hub for Jilin “is part of the efforts to strengthen the connectivity”, Yang said. “It can facilitate domestic trade, and Russia can also benefit from it, as it can charge some fees from the shipments.”