On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that all stakeholders in the planned Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, which will supply China with Russian gas piped through Mongolia, have confirmed their support for the project.

President Putin was speaking on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing while with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh.

Putin added, “We have significant projects, multifaceted, including jointly with the People’s Republic of China, I mean, for example, the construction of a gas pipeline system through Mongolia to China. All parties want to participate, want to work [in this project]. It’s a matter of implementation, I think we will move at a good pace.”

The Power of Siberia 2 would receive its gas for transport from the Yamal peninsula, which had supplied the EU market through several pipelines prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which had seen flows shrink in 2022, before it was blown up in a sabotage attack last September had received its flows there.

Now, the natural gas extracted from fields in Western Siberia will travel through the plains of Mongolia to be delivered to the largest energy importer in the world, China, as the demand for gas among its people surges.

The mega-gas pipeline will help Russia forge a closer trade relationship with China and transform the flow of Russian energy across Asia, as Russia looks to reorient its energy-trade relationships, following the imposition of sanctions by the West against Moscow over the war in Ukraine which cut it off from its previous buyers.

It is expected the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline will allow Moscow to increase the supply of pipeline gas to China by 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year. The currently operational, original Power of Siberia pipeline is projected to supply 38 bcm per year by 2025.