China-Russia ties have trended steadily upwards since end of Cold War: study
- Researchers find economic ties have overtaken military links, but no sign of ‘dramatic’ changes in relations in the past 30 years
- The peer-reviewed study is based on an index measuring bilateral cooperation intensity across a number of indicators
The peer-reviewed research, which measured Sino-Russian military, economic and political cooperation between 1992 and 2019, found no abrupt surges or declines in intensity in the post-Cold War period.
Cooperation continued largely unchanged in 2014, when Russia’s annexation of Crimea marked the start of the wider Russo-Ukrainian war, according to the study published in the academic journal Europe-Asia Studies.
Politics and international relations lecturer Maria Papageorgiou, from the University of Exeter, and Alena Vysotskaya Guedes Vieira, political science and international relations professor at the University of Minho, based their research on a self-developed bilateral cooperation intensity (BCI) index.
The study found that energy trade has been a focal point of Sino-Russian cooperation since 2008 – after ranking as “low” between 1992 and 2003 – and has led to the growing strength of economic links, which surpassed military ties in 2012.
“The level of energy interdependence showcases the depth and scope of bilateral energy relations,” the researchers said.