Russia and China: The Politics of Solving Problems

Abstract

Currently Russian-Chinese relations are believed to be at their highest point of development. They are arguably better now than they were even during the 1950s, in the time of communist friendship. Today’s relationship is one based on a genuinely equal nature while back in the 1950s the pattern was of a relationship between elder and younger brothers. The current approaches of Moscow and Beijing to most important international issues are very close. The current rapprochement between Russia and China, after years of unreasonably stormy relations, is spurred by the anxieties about the current international situation that both countries share. It is to a great extent stimulated by major trends in the post — Cold War world, which are perceived by both sides as negative and associated with U.S. policy. These include U.S. attempts to diminish the role of the United Nations (UN), especially the Security Council, the policy of NATO enlargement and its assumption of some functions of the Security Council, intervention in conflicts within sovereign states under humanitarian pretexts, Washington’s abrogation of the 1972 ABM treaty with Moscow, and U.S. reluctance to join a number of important international treaties.

1. Alexander Lukin is Director of the Center for East Asian and Shanghai Cooperation Organization Studies, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-University), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia.