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India & Japan already have a strategic dialogue going on how to take on China.India & China won't be in the same camp,unless the US openly sides with Pakistan against India(provided China drops it's oldest ally,Pakistan).

I agree. I have a hard time envisioning India aligning itself with Russia & China even with the pressure the Russians have been giving them to do so.

India has a history of siding with Russia, but I don't see the relationship continuing. India is fast becoming a strong ally of the US, and her economy is becoming tied more and more with ours every day.

I must agree that the development of joint Sino-Russian military maneuvers is disturbing, especially given the confluence of China's recent threats directed at Taiwan and Putin's anger towards the West for its perceived interference in Ukraine's disputed election. Even during the Cold War, the longest armed boundary between nations was between the former Soviet Union and China.

Yet, I do not think that these military maneuvers necessarily signal the beginning of an era of alliance between the two countries against the U.S. We have to view this development in the context of trends in world history, above and beyond the Taiwan issue and the Ukraine-election controversy.

Some developments admittedly support the view that China and Russia will forge an alliance of sorts, perhaps because of Japan's reemergence as a significant military power; Russia's decline and loss of satellite states, many of which have integrated themselves economically and politically with the West and sought to curry favor with the United States in its war against terror (e.g., Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary); and the fear of American military power in both countries, as demonstrated so effectively in Iraq twice in two decades.

Yet, we need to remember why a Sino-Russian alliance will not endure. Russia will fear for its Asian territory as China continues down the road of imminent ascendancy to superpower status. Moreover, like the United States, Russia has been victimized by Muslim terrorism in the recent past, which is fueled by separatist movements. While the United States can offer Russia partnership, China's military ties to Pakistan and Iran, its interest in countering India, and its self-image as the leading power of the emerging Third World nations, will keep China in alignment with the Muslim world. Also, India (a rival of China) and Russia have had relatively close relations for the last half-century. Also, Russia has partners other than China to counter the United States because it can ally itself with France and Germany, as it did in the UN before the second war with Iraq.

I think a military alliance is likely if one of these two happen:

1. Japan becomes a military threat and takes an aggressive stance towards both nations.

2. Russia elects to re-absorb former republics like the Ukraine, Lithuania, etc., and restore the Warsaw Pact at the same time that China attacks Taiwan to restore "one China." These events would prompt the United States to counter both threats and become a common enemy to China and Russia.

I do not know where in China these maneuvers will be conducted, but I will venture to speculate that these joint maneuvers could be equally motivated by a desire by both countries to make plans for a coordinated response against North Korea if that nation takes on the suicidal path of provoking a nuclear confrontation with Japan, South Korea, and/or the United States. This would be a Sino-Russian form of our Monroe Doctrine, designed to keep the U.S. from military action within their spheres of influence, and to prevent Japan from resurrecting its dormant military ad expansionist tradition.

In the end, though, one thing remains: only God knows the path that princes will take and where that journey will lead.

I enjoyed your comments! Have a great New Year!