A leading Russian banker has insisted that, with their bilateral strength, Russia and China can expand cooperation in artificial intelligence, finance and innovation.

Speaking in Vladivostok, Russia, Alexander Vedyakhin, first deputy chairman of the executive board at Sberbank, said that joint efforts by Russia and China in AI could become the core of a new technological architecture that offers an alternative to Western centers of power.

He said China, as one of the leaders in the AI market, has powerful potential in this area, while Russia is trying to ensure access to computing power and technology stacks that are independent of the United States and the European Union.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum 2025, Vedyakhin described China's priorities as the development of an open-source ecosystem and facilitating the entry of Chinese models into global markets.

"As of 2025, China ranks first in the world in terms of the number of large AI language models — of the 3,755 large models created worldwide, 1,509 were developed in China," he said.

Integration into China's developing ecosystem of open solutions is a priority for Russia, he said.

"Among the joint initiatives, we see the development of partnership projects between Russian companies and developers of leading Chinese models (Qwen-3, DeepSeek and MiniMax)," he added.

Last year, on the sidelines of the AI Journey international conference, which was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the AI Alliance Network was created, bringing together 17 industry associations from 14 countries, including three organizations representing China.

Citing Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2025, Vedyakhin noted that China ranks first in the world in terms of the number of scientific publications on AI.

"We plan to propose to the Chinese side that joint institutes and laboratories be opened on the basis of existing Chinese organizations that are leaders in the field of AI," he said.

It is also necessary to expand the exchange of students, graduates and researchers between the two countries, he added, stressing that the creation of joint master's programs in AI (dual degrees) and the opening of joint research laboratories at universities in Russia and China will help train a new generation of specialists.

"We view our partnership as part of broader cooperation within BRICS and the SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization)," he said.

Also at the forum, Vedyakhin revealed that Sberbank has signed several memoranda of understanding with Chinese partners.

"The figures speak for themselves: in 2024-2025, the number of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises that opened accounts with Sberbank grew by 50 percent," he said.

"Over the next two to three years, we plan to expand Sberbank's presence in China in two key areas: business and science."