The leaders of China and Russia said they would work together towards a peaceful resolution to the growing crisis of North Korean nuclear and missile programs. This joint diplomatic step differs sharply from the crude threats and pressure tactics resorted to Donald trump.
Their joint Declaration reflects a broader, ongoing strategic rapprochement between China and Russia, which the West has gone largely unnoticed. This convergence is facilitated often unpredictable, ill-considered actions of trump, as well as the resulting opportunities and threats posed by the erosion of American global leadership.
A powerful Alliance of China and Russia — of this huge crushing force starts to move, like a giant locomotive. And trump is like the eternal sucker of comics, whose legs are tied to the rails lying directly in his way.
According to Chinese media reports, the Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese President XI Jinping, who arrived on a two-day visit to Moscow, said that he agreed “to work together to achieve a full solution… through dialogue and negotiations” with North Korea.
Later the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia published a statement saying that the two countries agreed on a common position, which will allow to defuse tensions associated with missile programme of the DPRK.
Their cooperation is not limited to the problems of the Korean Peninsula. “The Chinese leader stressed the need to strengthen cooperation and “strong support for each other in… protect the sovereignty of each country, their national security and development interests”,” reported official news Agency Xinhua.
The summit of leaders of the two countries became the third personal meeting, XI and Putin this year. Since coming to power in 2012, XI Jinping met with his Russian counterpart more than 20 times.
Putin called this meeting at the highest level, “the Central event in the bilateral relations”. During the visit it was planned to sign a number of economic agreements worth $ 10 billion. Putin also awarded President XI Jinping the Order of St. Andrew the Apostle — one of the highest awards of Russia.
Russia and China actively develop cooperation on key international issues, often the same vote in the UN Security Council. Later this week the two leaders will travel to Hamburg to the summit of “Big twenty”, where each of them is scheduled to meet with trump.
The Moscow meeting between the two leaders coincided with a m a Pyongyang missile test. It is assumed that this was an Intercontinental ballistic missile. If this information is confirmed, it would represent a significant step forward for the offensive capabilities of Pyongyang.
The test caused the usual protests from Japan and South Korea. But the two countries that are traditional US allies, hoping to get help not from Washington but from the North. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that he is particularly looking forward to “constructive” role China and Russia, from which it can be concluded that the actions of trump only contribute to the deterioration of the situation.
The President of South Korea, moon Jae-In was elected due to its proposed program of resuming cooperation with North Korea, which is not consistent with the approach trump. After a not very productive meeting at the White house last week, moon Jae In is under pressure from China and Russia, which requires him to stop the deployment of American missile defense system THAAD is designed to counter the forces of Pyongyang.
The deployment of this system “is causing serious damage to the strategic security interests of China, Russia and other countries in the region,” said XI Jinping this week. Translated from diplomatic language, this means a call to stop the deployment of the system. Thus the permanent representative of China to the UN has warned of “catastrophic” consequences that will come if no diplomatic solution would be found.
Chinese and Russian leaders are also United in the fact that they can not understand how to behave with trump. And both see the opportunity to extract benefits for themselves. In April, during the meeting with XI Jinping in Florida trump personally appealed to the Chinese leader with the request to assist in solving the North Korean issue. And later he said that it worked.
But after that meeting, the White house expressed irritation that Beijing was not doing enough. Now trump’s bluff exposed. He was trapped between his loud bellicose statements and the need for a diplomatic “victory” to avoid war.
As payment for helping Trump XI Jinping during their meeting in Hamburg may require further concessions on the controversial issues of bilateral relations. However, given the unpredictability of trump, he will have to tread carefully.
Trump — weaker position in comparison with Putin, given the data of the various investigations of his campaign relations with Moscow. For Putin, like XI Jinping, Hamburg will be the place where you can play the role of a responsible statesman on the world stage and to get caught in a difficult position trump’s activities that are most important to you — for example, the lifting of sanctions related to the Ukraine.
The layman Trump should catch up and improve the game. Techniques such as throws, ineffective in the fight against an experienced judoka, black belt holder, strong and powerful Russian leader.
