• 3 minutes e-car sales collapse
  • 6 minutes America Is Exceptional in Its Political Divide
  • 11 minutes Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient
  • 4 hours GREEN NEW DEAL = BLIZZARD OF LIES
  • 7 days If hydrogen is the answer, you're asking the wrong question
  • 22 hours How Far Have We Really Gotten With Alternative Energy
  • 11 days Biden's $2 trillion Plan for Insfrastructure and Jobs
Felicity Bradstock

Felicity Bradstock

Felicity Bradstock is a freelance writer specialising in Energy and Finance. She has a Master’s in International Development from the University of Birmingham, UK.

More Info

Premium Content

Are Deepening Ties Between Russia And China A Threat To Western Interests?

  • Russia and China are continuing to deepen their ties in spite of the West’s efforts to curb Russian energy dominance.
  • For both Russia and China, the main interest is to weaken the U.S.-led international order.
  • Whether this improved relationship between China and Russia will change the U.S. and Europe’s approach to sanctions on the two powers is still unknown.
Putin Xi

Russia and China are continuing to deepen their ties in spite of the West’s efforts to curb Russian energy dominance. Instead of encouraging a move away from Russian oil and natural gas, the U.S. and European sanctions have instead provided a cheap energy supply for the Asian market, for countries that are open to maintaining their relations with Russia, such as China and India. 

Last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping had a three-day state visit to Moscow, following successful discussions over the strengthening of the relationship between the two states. China and Russia have been gradually deepening their defence and trade ties over the last decade, and the recent introduction of sanctions on Russian energy from the West is now presenting China with an opportunity to boost trade relations with the superpower. 

Analysts are now suggesting that it may not be only trade that is improved, with the potential for Russia and China to boost their geopolitical, economic, and military connections. The two powers have often agreed on geopolitical goals, such as putting restrictions on NATO’s military power and encouraging a more multi-polar world. In addition, neither state has tried to hide its distrust of the West, having worked hard to establish their own allegiances and supply chains with non-Western countries. 

Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, stated “If you look at the trajectory of China-Russia relations within the last decade, bilateral ties between the two countries have really developed tremendously.” Bachulska added “It’s basically about certain strategic interests, that are very close to both Beijing and Moscow at this point… For both Russia and China, the main interest is to weaken the U.S.-led international order, that’s their primary goal, long term and short term.”

The possibility of strengthening Russia’s relationship with China is important to Putin who has burned bridges with many of the world’s other leading powers. The meeting comes following news that the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes against Ukraine during the conflict. While China has avoided stating its support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it has not condemned it either, leaving the door open for its relationship with Putin. 

In January and February, Russia raced ahead of Saudi Arabia as China’s biggest crude supplier. China has been eager to buy Russian oil at discounted prices, with its imports rising by 23.8 percent year over year to a total of 1.94 million bpd. And now Russia hopes to increase its gas exports to China, a topic that was discussed by the two country leaders in a week China referred to as a “journey of friendship.” Russia, until recently the world’s biggest exporter of gas, has seen its exports fall dramatically over the last year, since its conflict with Ukraine. This is largely due to sanctions imposed by several countries around the globe. It now hopes to boost its gas shipments to China, but this would require the construction of new pipelines going east. Meanwhile, Xi emphasised his support for the deepening of energy ties between China and Russia, so long as it maintains international energy security and supply chains. While Russia has faced extensive sanctions from the West, China has not been able to avoid western restrictions either. Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. imposed new export controls on microelectronics to China, as well as adding 110 new Chinese enterprises to its partial exports sanctions list.The U.S. has long considered Russia and China as the key strategic adversaries, and the worsening of its relationships with each state has driven the U.S. to strengthen its regional energy security and establish new supply chains with allied countries. This action has driven China to look for ways to improve its relationship with Russia, as well as foster new partnerships across Asia. 

Related: EV Slump Forces China’s Top Lithium Producers To Set Price Floor

China continues to rely heavily on several countries worldwide for the import of its raw materials, as well as continuing to depend on foreign export markets to drive its economic growth. However, Xi has introduced several policies to encourage economic diversification and ensure stability. He has stimulated domestic consumption to help drive down dependence on foreign exports and hopes to boost the trade of raw materials with Moscow to reduce its reliance on other powers. And this plan appears to be working, with trade between the two states increasing by a third in 2022 to $190 billion. 

As well as the potential benefits of deepening its ties with Russia, China could benefit from seeing the situation between the West and Russia play out. Partnering with Russia will allow Xi to understand how Putin responds to heavy Western sanctions and allow him to study its survival experience. China’s contribution to Russia’s economy could also help keep Western attention focused on Russia rather than itself, as an adversary. 

As China and Russia deepen their geopolitical and economic ties, the rest of the world – particularly the West – is feeling increasingly threatened by the new power bloc. Working together, the two states could build strong supply chains and provide one another with the energy and other resources needed to ensure economic growth, even without the help of the West. Whether this improved relationship between China and Russia will change the U.S. and Europe’s approach to sanctions on the two powers is still unknown, but the race to diversify Western energy sources and supply chains suggests that the region is preparing itself for whatever may come. 

ADVERTISEMENT

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:


Download The Free Oilprice App Today

Back to homepage





Leave a comment
  • Mamdouh Salameh on April 02 2023 said:
    Deepening ties between Russia and China are indeed a threat to Western interests. The Chinese-Russian strategic alliance has been going from strength to strength as evidenced by its rising political and economic influence in the world’s most vibrant and fast-growing region, the Asia-Pacific region and also in the Gulf region home to the world’s most oil and gas reserves. It has the following strategic objectives:

    1- Acceleration of the transformation of the current World Order led by the United States from a unipolar system into a multipolar one ushered in by both China and Russia.

    2- Displacing the United States as the top superpower in the world.

    3- The creation of a new global financial system to replace the US system with the yuan replacing the US dollar as the global reserve currency and the petro-yuan replacing the petrodollar as the dominant oil currency.

    Russia and China share a strategic vision against the unipolar world: both see the United States in relative decline and the world already becoming multipolar. In the process of mismanaging its decline, the US suffers from a psychological problem that manifests itself in the unfounded fear of power challenge from potential rivals, hence its persistent attempts to hinder their rise and contain them.

    Both China and Russia view the Ukraine conflict as a rearguard action by the United States to slow down the emergence of the new World Order.

    China sees the direct involvement of the US-led NATO in the Ukraine conflict as a dress rehearsal for an inevitable confrontation between China and the United States over Taiwan with direct involvement by NATO.

    Moreover, Russia’s economy and China’s complement each other almost totally. Russia has everything that China needs from energy to food materials and technology particularly weapons’ technologies and China provides Russia with the world’s biggest market for its exports. That is why trade between the two partners expanded from $13 bn in 2011 to more than $190 bn in 2022.

    Dr Mamdouh G Salameh
    International Oil Economist
    Global Energy Expert

Leave a comment




EXXON Mobil -0.35
Open57.81 Trading Vol.6.96M Previous Vol.241.7B
BUY 57.15
Sell 57.00
Oilprice - The No. 1 Source for Oil & Energy News