"Thanks to the joint efforts of both sides, bilateral trade has maintained a strong upward trend, and this is why it has reached another record high," Zhang said.
The ambassador said that in 2022, business cooperation between Russia and China has reached a new level.
"In the first 11 months of this year, the total volume of Sino-Russian trade reached $172.41 billion, up 32% year-on-year, already surpassing last year's annual figure of $146.87 billion and undoubtedly set to reach a new record high," he said.
The volume of Chinese exports to Russia amounted to $67.34 billion, an increase of 13.4 percent, and China's imports from Russia amounted to $105.07 billion, an increase of 47.5 percent, Zhang said.
He said that in 2022, China and Russia overcame a number of unfavorable factors in their trade and economic cooperation. In particular, in February, the parties signed a road map for the high-quality development of Sino-Russian trade in goods and services, which outlines the path to achieve the set goals in bilateral trade.
The leaders of Russia and China earlier set the goal to double bilateral trade, bringing it from $100 billion a year to $200 billion by 2024. The $100 billion mark was reached in 2018.
After talks between the two countries' leaders in Beijing on February 4, Chinese President Xi Jinping outlined a new goal to increase Russia-China trade to $250 billion a year.