Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Third Belt and Road Forum on October 17 in Beijing. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS
‘When you look at the Russia-China relationship, the ‘no limits’ partnership is starting to bump up against a few limits,’ one says
Experts suggest Beijing might move closer to US positions on Ukraine and Mideast as it seeks to rein in ‘chaos’
With conflicts in the Middle East joining the war in Ukraine as strains on China’s foreign relations, Beijing might well be rethinking its alliance with Russia, analysts said on Tuesday.
“When you look at the Russia-China relationship, the ‘no limits’ partnership is starting to bump up against a few limits,” Rick Waters, until recently the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for China and Taiwan, said in a discussion hosted by the National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP).
Concerning the Israel-Gaza conflict and Russia’s war against Ukraine, Waters, now managing director of Eurasia Group’s China practice, said, “I don’t think that China is an agent of chaos in either context – and they’re a bit nervous that the Russians are – and so I think on Gaza we’ve started to see some indications privately that the Chinese have weighed in with the Iranians”.
Source: South China Morning Post