The Sino-Russian Strategic Partnership starts to get serious!

SampanViking

The Capitalist
Staff member
Super Moderator
VIP Professional
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But what does this mean to the European countries? Germany especially would see large advantages in being part of the Eurasian Economic Union. When US were to concentrate on the Pacific would they be able to prevent EU entering EEU, especially after a likely Brexit.

This is precisely the point is it not?
The EEU (or EAEU) and the Silk Road Economic Belt will deliver an economic tsunami to the borders of the EU and I just cannot see those dysfunctional structures standing up the onslaught.
Most of the accession countries only joined the EU because it was the best deal on offer and I can see many of them jumping ship at the first opportunity. I would say that the South East and Balkans will go first and that in Greece, we could be seeing the process getting started.

The Brexit will be very interesting in all this. It cannot stall the inevitable, but if something slips and the Brexit happens, the EEU westward expansion will be all the faster. We all know that both the survival of the United Kingdom as a unitary state and the remaining of the UK in Europe are both critical to US European Strategies. It is loses one or both over the next five years, it really is game over.
 

adeptitus

Captain
VIP Professional
Found this on China MOD white paper release today. Note Russia was placed on top:

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Developing all-round military-to-military relations. China's armed forces will further their exchanges and cooperation with the Russian military within the framework of the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia, and foster a comprehensive, diverse and sustainable framework to promote military relations in more fields and at more levels. China's armed forces will continue to foster a new model of military relationship with the US armed forces that conforms to the new model of major-country relations between the two countries, strengthen defense dialogues, exchanges and cooperation, and improve the CBM mechanism for the notification of major military activities as well as the rules of behavior for safety of air and maritime encounters, so as to strengthen mutual trust, prevent risks and manage crises. In the spirit of neighborhood diplomacy of friendship, sincerity, reciprocity and inclusiveness, China's armed forces will further develop relations with their counterparts in neighboring countries. Also, they will work to raise the level of military relations with European counterparts, continue the traditional friendly military ties with their African, Latin American and Southern Pacific counterparts. China's armed forces will work to further defense and security cooperation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and continue to participate in multilateral dialogues and cooperation mechanisms such as the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM+), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD), Jakarta International Defence Dialogue (JIDD) and Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS). The Chinese military will continue to host multilateral events like the Xiangshan Forum, striving to establish a new framework for security and cooperation conducive to peace, stability and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
Interesting proposal, not sure if the facts about China's development is accurate.

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Just a feel good piece for Russians.

Other than the SSN, little Russia has to sale (so excluding SSBNs and ICBMs) would really interest China.

OTOH, we may soon be upon the time where Russia starts buying arms from China, as there are plenty of things China makes which would be very useful for the Russians.

Top of the list would be modern surface combatants. I'm sure Russia admirals would be pleased to have a few 054As and 052Ds under their command.

J10s would fill an important role providing a decent medium weight fighter to bulk out Russia's fleet that is both more capable than the Mig29 and offers spares comparability with Russian Su27 and Su30/35 fighters.

All of China's AWACS, UCAVs and specialist mission electronic aircraft would also fill gaps I'm Russia's force structure.
 

Blackstone

Brigadier
Just in case anyone gets too comfortable with Sino-Russo relations, events show there's fear and loathing on both sides, and always will.

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Plans to hand a stretch of remote Siberian territory to
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have triggered a storm of protest in Russia, underlining how a relationship hailed by the leaders of both countries is being undermined by deep-rooted distrust.

The government of Zabaikalsky Krai, one of the country’s poorest regions, signed a preliminary agreement earlier this month under which Hua’e Xingbang, a private Chinese company, would gain control of more than 1,000 square kilometres of idle land bordering China on a 49-year lease for Rbs24bn ($440m).

But when the plan was made public, Russian politicians and media warned it could lead to an annexation of Russian lands by Beijing.

“This deal poses huge political risks, particularly to Russia’s territorial integrity,” Igor Lebedev, a deputy speaker of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, said. “The contract must not be signed.”

“They will bring in scores of Chinese. Then 20 or 30 years from now the Chinese government will demand those lands be given to China because all those Chinese people live there,” he added.

While Mr Lebedev’s nationalist Liberal-Democratic party often employs rhetoric that is hostile to non-Russians, his outrage has been widely echoed.

Vladimir Pozdnyakov, a Communist party deputy from Zabaikalsky Krai, also expressed concerns that the proposed investment could become a Trojan Horse for China to overrun Russia’s sparsely populated eastern Siberian and Far Eastern regions.

Only 5.4m live in the five Russian regions neighbouring China, while the two Chinese provinces on the other side of the border have a combined population of 63m.

Mr Pozdnyakov suggested the move could destroy the local environment. “We have more than enough experience with that. Where they have planted, the land is dead. Nothing will grow for years,” he warned.

Critics also fear it could lead to
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being squeezed out because as well as exporting produce back to China they could also sell it more cheaply on the domestic market.


Chinese investors have been scouring Russia for opportunities to buy up land for agricultural production facilities since the steep depreciation in the rouble in December.

The controversy comes as Russia is forced into making an increasing number of concessions to
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, including over
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. Russia needs Chinese funds to replace a shortfall caused by western sanctions.

Konstantin Ilkovsky, governor of Zabaikalsky region, has defended the land sale by saying no Russians were willing to cultivate land in his region.

Russia’s political leadership have also recognised the dilemma.

“We do not have enough population,” Sergei Ivanov, Mr Putin’s chief of staff, conceded in an
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. “If a Chinese investor wants to cultivate virgin land 200km from the border and grow vegetables there — so do it, for God’s sake.”

Russian president Vladimir Putin has pushed for closer ties with Beijing in response to Moscow’s fall-out with the west. He and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have held numerous summits since the start of the Ukraine crisis and claimed that their relations are better than ever.

Hua’e Xingbang is a subsidiary of Zoje Resources Investment, a sewing machine maker from the south-eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang which is trying to diversify into more profitable sectors.

Liu Changgui, legal representative of Hua’e Xingbang, declined to comment on the planned Russia deal and the backlash against it.
 

Franklin

Captain
Just in case anyone gets too comfortable with Sino-Russo relations, events show there's fear and loathing on both sides, and always will.

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The outcry over land lease is just a blip. It doesn't change the larger picture. China and Russia are both facing US encroachment in their neighbourhood. The Russians with NATO expansion to the east and China with the Asian pivot. More recently the pressure has increased even more for them with the SCS for China and with Ukraine for Russia. Articles like this that emphasize the differences between Russia and China is just wishful thinking.

The US and her allies seems to be making the same mistake as Germany did before WWI when they thought that Republican France and Tsarist Russia will never come together because of their differences. But because of the threat that both perceived from Germany they did. And today China and Russia are coming together because of the threat they perceived from America.
 

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
The media is a propaganda machine. Obama managed to do something no one in the West saw coming which was getting their two top adversaries seeing eye to eye not since the darkest days of the Cold War. Screw around with Russia and China on separate issues at the same time? And somehow they thought it was impossible the two wouldn't join together against the West in any measure? Why? The same logic of this article which is there's great mistrust between the two. And they got that wrong.

This is another attempt to exploit anything they see to create a division. Just like how that massive oil deal with China was bad for Russia despite heavy sanctions by the West on Russia. "China was exploiting Russian tensions with the West in order to get a great deal on oil." Just like they're try to reshape geo-politics in their favor right now by trying to exploit mistrust? They wanted Russia to collapse from sanctions but China gave Russia a lifeline. Do the math on what happens if their plan goes as hoped. It's not like if Russia turns away from China, the West will have open arms for them like China was the ultimate instigator of tension between them. They want the Russians to isolate themselves so they would collapse. It's harder for them to turn China against Russia and to go along with sanctions and also to collapse China.

A war between the West and Russia will weaken the West overall and they probably won't recover what global power they had after it and they know it. Just like they lost their colonies as a result of WWII despite winning. They're desperately wishing upon a star that war doesn't happen but they have to get rid of Putin and replace the government with a pro-Western one. And the only way of avoiding a war is to have Russia implode from within. And that can't happen if China is giving them a lifeline.
 
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