Putin visits China to tighten key alliance
RUSSIA: President Vladimir Putin visits China Tuesday on the first
trip to Asia of his new Kremlin mandate to tighten an increasingly close
alliance that is key for Russia’s diplomatic and economic strategy.
Putin, who began a historic third term as president less than a month
ago, has already made a lightning trip to Germany and France but will
symbolically be visiting Beijing before the United States.
The sometimes troubled Moscow-Beijing relationship has warmed during
Putin’s 12 years of domination over Russia and the two governments are
notably in lockstep in opposing outside intervention to solve the Syrian
crisis.
“One can understand where the vector of Russian policy is turned”
with the Beijing visit, commented Georgy Kunadze, a China expert at the
Russian Academy of Sciences and former diplomat.
Putin is likely to coordinate positions with President Hu Jintao on
the violence in Syria and Iranian nuclear crisis, with the West keenly
aware both UN Security Council permanent members are prepared to wield
their vetoes.
But economic issues are also set to figure prominently on the
three-day trip, particularly the energy sector as Russia searches for
new markets while China seeks cheap natural resources.
Russian energy giant Gazprom over the last week held talks in China
in an apparent bid to overcome continued disagreements over gas prices
in a landmark contract that has been in its final stages since last
summer.
The long-term deal envisages that Russia is to annually supply nearly
70 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China over the next thirty
years, under a framework agreement signed in late 2009.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said this week that
the sides have still not reached an agreement on price, and it is
unlikely that the deal will be signed during Putin’s visit.
Meanwhile, Russian media reported this week that the two countries
are also preparing to launch a joint aerospace project to develop a
long-range passenger plane based on Russian know-how and Chinese
investment which would challenge giants Airbus and Boeing.
The presidency of Dmitry Medvedev -- who held the Kremlin from 2008
to May of this year while Putin served as prime minister -- was marked
by optimism about Russia’s strengthening relations with the United
States.
But Putin led observers to believe his foreign policy will be rooted
elsewhere when he surprisingly cancelled a trip to the United States
last month that was to have been the first foreign visit of his new
term.
On Wednesday, Putin will participate in a Beijing summit of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a security body that includes
Russia’s former Soviet partners in Central Asia and a handful of
observer states, including Iran.
Putin’s attendance at the SCO summit -- seen as a fledgling eastern
counterpart to NATO -- is also symbolic given he was absent from the
NATO summit in Chicago amid a row with the United States over missile
defence.
Putin is a frequent guest of Chinese leaders, last visiting Beijing
as recently as October in his capacity as prime minister.
AFP |