Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin attend a presentation of a Haval F7 SUV produced at the Haval car plant located in Russian Tula region, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, June 5, 2019. It insists the ties do not flout international norms, and China has the prerogative to collaborate with whichever country it chooses. The Russian Far East bordering China as well as North Korea has gained new strategic significance as a zone of cross-border trade and commerce. Chinese state media also says there is a growing "necessity" for China and Russia to step up their grain trading amid continued tight global supplies. The construction of a grain corridor linking Russia to Heilongjiang, China's northeastern bread basket, will help bolster China's food security.

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Persons: Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, Maxim Shipenkov, Wang Yi, Vladimir Putin's, Wang Wentao, Tongjiang, Ryan Woo, Alex Richardson, Timothy Gardner, Michael Perry Organizations: Kremlin, Reuters, Rights, West, Commerce, Chemical Co, Yuan Industrial, Thomson Locations: Russian Tula, Moscow, Russia, Rights BEIJING, China, Ukraine, Russian, Beijing, China's, North Korea, United, Yuan, Nizhneleninskoye, Europe, Japan, Heilongjiang