Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin clink glasses before the start of the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on June 15, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE
Opinion
Opinion
Outside In
China-Russia ‘no limits’ relationship should be taken with a pinch of salt
- Attempts to lump the two countries together in an ‘axis of autocracy’ ignore their deep mutual mistrust, which goes back to the 19th century, and the strains resulting from China’s economic rise
- Their ties are pragmatic, motivated by a common shared suspicion of a number of Western powers, and geographic factors
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin clink glasses before the start of the fifth summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on June 15, 2019. Photo: EPA-EFE
