More than 75 percent of the vast Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline from Russia to China has been completed, according to a March 21 statement from Russian energy firm Gazprom.

Construction of the pipeline is nearing completion, with more than 1,012 miles of the link now built, the state-owned gas giant reported. The link stretches from the Chayandinskoye field in Siberia to Blagoveshchensk, near China’s border. At the border, an extension will bring the pipeline into China.

When completed, the project will “allow Gazprom to provide gas supplies to domestic consumers in Russia’s Far East and start delivering pipeline gas to the extensive and fast-growing Chinese market.”

A deal signed in 2014 between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corp. stipulates that Russia will deliver 1.3 trillion cubic feet of gas to China per year through the pipeline for 30 years.

The contract is worth $400 billion, and was personally signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping. “This is the largest contract in the history of the gas industry of the former ussr and the Russian Federation,” Putin told reporters at the ceremony.

Now four years on, Gazprom says deliveries to China are on track to begin on Dec. 20, 2019.

This colossal energy deal is only the latest indication of a rapidly forming Russia-China axis. This axis is reorienting 21st-century geopolitics—and tilting the advantage away from the West.

It was only at the end of the Cold War that relations between Moscow and Beijing began to thaw. But today, the two are close comrades. They have held 30 joint military exercises since 2003. China has become the Russian weapons industry’s biggest and most reliable customer. Trade between them is soaring. Meanwhile, a close personal relationship has developed between Putin and Xi.

The Trumpet closely watches the deepening Russia-China partnership because Bible prophecy foretells of an Asian power bloc that will come together in the end time, called in Revelation 16:12 “the kings of the east.” Bible prophecy makes clear that in the “time of the end,” this Asian confederation will play a central role in a nuclear World War iii.

Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has explained that the two are already fulfilling the early phases of these prophecies. In 2014, after China said it backed Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s land, Mr. Flurry said the support was “a stunning fulfillment of a biblical prophecy!”

He wrote:

Actually we have been proclaiming for over 50 years that Russia, China and other Asian nations would ally themselves in the end time. And we are in that end time now. … When these Asian nations—extremely powerful nuclear-armed countries—begin to show solidarity with each other regarding moves like that, what does that portend for the world? I tell you it is woe to the world. It will cause many serious problems.

For a deep dive into the numerous prophecies that discuss this Asian bloc and its role in end-time events, order a free copy of our booklet Russia and China in Prophecy.