Authors

Marcin Kaczmarski⁴; Natasha Kuhrt¹; Marc Lanteigne³; David Lewis²; Nathaniel Choi⁵;  ¹ King's College London, UK;  ² University of Exeter, UK;  ³ UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Norway;  ⁴ University of Glasgow, UK;  ⁵ St Andrews University, UK

Discussion

Several weeks before Russia's aggression against Ukraine, Russia and China declared - during Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing - that their relationship had 'no limits'. However, the war against Ukraine demonstrated the existence of numerous limitations and brought all contradictions characterising the Sino-Russian relationship to the fore. China mirrored Russian narratives, repeating the Kremlin's justifications for the use of force and unambiguously blaming the US and NATO. But, a practical dimension of Beijing’s support has been missing. China has not offered substantial financial or economic assistance, nor has it come out to help Russia bypass Western sanctions.

The proposed roundtable will attempt to take stock of the developments in Sino-Russian relations against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and the deepening Sino-American rivalry. We will explore the drivers behind Sino-Russian rapprochement - ranging from the opposition to the US primacy to normative convergence - and discuss inherent limitations. Exploring a closer Sino-Russian political and strategic relationship, we will consider their concerns about each other’s future power direction and their implications for the bilateral relationship.