Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1 to 10 of about 1612
Over the course of the last thirty years, China and Russia have demonstrated that their partnership is resilient and expanding. Any pragmatic leadership in the Kremlin—even a democratic one that seeks to improve ties with the West—will try to maintain stable and friendly relations with China, just as any pragmatic Chinese leadership will do with Russia.
Even if there is cause for competition in Central Asia, both Moscow and Beijing see friendly bilateral relations as a priority, especially against the backdrop of their escalating confrontation with the West.
Russia needs foreign students, and not only to diversify its exports. Connections with people who have lived in a partner state are a valuable resource for fostering cooperation and an instrument of soft power.
The development of the Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 2 projects indicates that China has been and will remain Russia’s main foreign partner in Far North megaprojects for the foreseeable future. At the same time, Moscow is making a conscious effort to be less dependent on its partnership with Beijing.
While a successful Iran nuclear deal is far from guaranteed, alternatives to diplomacy are bleak. The United States’ apparent unwillingness to signal its intention to honor the agreement, Iran’s nuclear progress, and rising tensions between Washington and Beijing stand in the way of a renewed compromise.
This means the time is growing short to craft a vision of an information environment that enables democracy and to prepare proposals that will counter the authoritarian vision of central control.
Putin’s actions suggest that his true goal is not to conquer Ukraine and absorb it into Russia but to change the post-Cold War setup in Europe’s east. That setup left Russia as a rule-taker without much say in European security, which was centered on NATO.
Russia and China have touted their cooperation in space as something approaching an alliance, a perception fueled by new bilateral agreements, including plans to establish a joint moon base. Yet the main thing uniting Russia and China in this area is their rivalry with the United States.
If Moscow can’t dispense with foreign participation in developing 5G technologies, it will try to diversify its cooperation with foreign vendors.
When the Soviet Union finally fell, it was in a mundane way, as if it had clocked off from a normal day's work.