Normalisation and partnership -- Bilateral relations -- Central Asia and Mongolia -- Asia and beyond
Summary
Russia and China claim to have established a "strategic partnership." This paper argues that there is little in their relationship that can be seen as "partnership", and even less that is "strategic." The author argues that, in reality, this relationship merely overlays a diplomatic agenda established by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s. China's pragmatic and limited approach and Russia's domestic economic and political difficulties means that the Sino-Russian strategic partnership is unwieldy and imprecise, and complicates the still-incomplete normalisation process. Moscow and Beijing must return to building a stable, long-term relationship. In turn, Western governments and analysts need to make clearer to Russia the benefits of improved relations with China, and the position such relations occupy in a benign Asia-Pacific balance of power
