#China and #Russias Great Game in #CentralAsia One of the main criticisms against #Washingtons attempt to sanction and otherwise punish Russian President #VladimirPutin for his aggressive actions in #Ukraine is that this is driving Russia and China closer together in an anti-American axis. Such concerns are unfounded, first because the two are already close strategic partners, but more importantly, because neither really trusts the other...nor should they. This is not to say that Sino-Russian cooperation has not been significant. Last year Russias Gazprom and the China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $400 billion contract to jointly build a gas pipeline. They further agreed to do their transactions in their own currencies, rather than the US dollar. Later that month, in a joint statement at the 4th Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building measures in Asia (CICA) - a reinvigorated Asia-Pacific security group in which the United States and Japan are only observers - the two leaders pledged to cement their strategic partnership. Both countries have regularly vetoed or significantly watered down US-sponsored UN resolutions regarding Syria and North Korea. Moreover, China has been noticeably quiet regarding Russias intervention in Ukraine. And while Beijing is particularly sensitive to questions of sovereignty and territorial integrity - non-interference being one of its most sacred principles - and despite close defense ties with Ukraine, thus far, Beijing has refrained from publicly criticizing Moscow. nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/china-russias-great-game-central-asia-11385
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:41:14 +0000
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