The Sino-Russian mutual admiration society works right up to the point that Vietnam takes one of the six Russian subs it has bought and torpedoes China’s brand new deep water oil platform parked in Vietnamese waters.
Certain things are geopolitical in nature. Russo-Chinese far eastern cooperation lasts as long as they have a common strategic interest in the form of a mutual opponent they are both seeking to exclude. Otherwise, Russo-Chinese cooperation has the shelf life of bananas.
....”Certain things are geopolitical in nature. Russo-Chinese far eastern cooperation lasts as long as they have a common strategic interest in the form of a mutual opponent they are both seeking to exclude”.....
I agree, however oil/gas pipelines do hard-wire countries together as nothing else. Further they ‘delay’ otherwise quick decisions by leaders when faced with a crisis, as we have seen Europe and Germany do regarding the events in Ukraine. Doing so gave Russia the edge because of this hesitation and reluctance to take a united stand.
Also there is more to this China/Russia oil deal in that China has been calling for a new standard of currency instead of the US Dollar. From my understanding this deal with China (in the billions over a 30 year period) will be via the Rubles/Rupees or Chinese yuan. Because it certainly won’t be in dollars..... so China got more than an oil deal.