NewStrategyCenter publishes a new study, titled „A Possible Ominous Partnership: The China-Russia’s ‘Friendship Without Limits’.  The author of the analysis is Ambassador Doru Costea, member of the New Strategy Center Scientific Council, a distinguished diplomat and former Romanian Ambassador to China.

The study analyses, in the context of the war in Ukraine, the elements that bring Moscow and Beijing closer together, such as their opposition to Western hegemony, especially the United States’, or authoritarian practices at home, and the limits of their partnership: their different approach to confronting the West and different or even conflicting interests in regions such as Central Asia or Eastern Europe. Furthermore, the negotiator and peacemaker positions that China is trying to adopt in the Ukrainian war context illustrates the limits of Moscow-Beijing collaboration. Thus, China’s interest is that Russia does not achieve total victory, but neither suffers a severe defeat. Also, the fact that the United States is providing extremely large amounts of military and financial aid to Ukraine is advantageous for Chinese policy on the Pacific, because the US is now obliged to pay close attention to the war in Ukraine.

All in all, the China-Russia alliance can be considered a circumstantial but effective alliance, but at the same time dangerous because of its multiple global implications.