Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia and China have built an equal, strategic partnership in which neither side withholds technology from the other, in remarks published Tuesday.

Speaking to the online project Sama Menshova, Lavrov said the absence of technological secrecy between the two countries reflects the balanced and mutually beneficial character of their comprehensive strategic partnership, pointing to joint agreements as evidence.

Asked whether Russia risks slipping into the role of China's "junior partner," Lavrov rejected the framing outright, saying Moscow and Beijing have never approached the relationship in those terms.

The foreign minister praised China's standing as a leading technological power across both applied and theoretical science, citing its output of high-tech goods, robotics and reusable spacecraft.

He said Russia's own scientific tradition is equally strong, and that the two countries' strengths complement one another, pointing to joint work underway in space exploration, advanced technology and artificial intelligence.

Maritime trade between the two countries climbs

Separately, Russia's Transport Ministry said Tuesday that maritime cargo traffic between Russian and Chinese ports rose 19.2 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2026, reaching 109.5 million tonnes.

The ministry released the figures during the 30th plenary session of the Russian-Chinese Subcommission on Transport Cooperation, held as part of the Second Russian-Chinese Forum in Khabarovsk.

Officials noted that sea cargo volumes between the two countries had already grown 4.3 percent across all of 2025, reaching 196.75 million tonnes, before accelerating further in the opening months of this year.

Broader trade ties continue to expand

This technological and maritime cooperation comes against a backdrop of fast-growing overall trade between the two countries.

According to China's General Administration of Customs, trade between Russia and China rose 28.4 percent in the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same period last year, reaching $185 billion.

Chinese exports to Russia totaled $84.675 billion between January and August, up 30.7 percent year-on-year, while Russian exports to China climbed 26.5 percent to $100.37 billion over the same period, customs data released Tuesday showed.

The figures leave Russia with a trade surplus of more than $15.6 billion over the eight-month period.