Apparently the alliance between Russia and China has been a major headache for the SUA for decades. The alliance seems to be the only deterrent and restraining force. Western editions sometimes remind us about that.
On June 25th, 213, Leslie H. Gelb, Dimitri K. published the article called Beware Collusion of China, Russia, thereby reminding us about the dangers for the USA once again.
USA Forces China and Russia To Act As Opposing Force
Many experts consider that Russia and China are partners and allies in many fields by default. They say the alliance is a kind of deterrent for the USA and is NATO friends. It is not accidental that the recent meeting between the 2 leaders that took place in Moscow ended with mutual agreements in terms of national security and sovereignty. They also promised to tighten their cooperation in international regional affairs.
The authors of the mentioned article say that “So far, Russian-Chinese ties appear in large part to be an unintended consequence of American policies aimed at other objectives…”
According to them there are several issues to be concerned about:
· China and Russia may come up with an unofficial union to confront the USA and the NATO since the latter are viewed as threats to their national security and sovereignty.
· US politicians seem to have lost control over the situation and cannot tell working schemes from useless ones when it comes to foreign policy. By compromising with the UK and France over Libya and Syria, the USA is pushing Russia and China towards tighter cooperation.
· When it comes to international politics, strong-arm tactics seems to be getting more popular. Russia and China feel isolated and pushed outside of the Western world. Therefore, they want to change the rules of the game, which is much easier to do together.
· There is a delusion in the USA that China and Russia won’t be able to influence the balance of powers since they won’t be able to agree on multiple issues because of many differences and conflicts of interests. Still, China and Russia keeps compromising on multiple issues, thereby tightening their cooperation in many fields and showing their reluctance to obey to the USA’s hegemony.
· Today’s multi-polar situation in the world resembles the one seen in Europe in 1914 right in advance of World War I. This only increases the chances of tighter cooperation between Russia and China.
· The two countries assume that today’s world order is designed so that Western countries could benefit from it, with the IMF and the World Bank being financial weapons. This automatically opposes them to the USA and the rest of the Western world, simultaneously uniting them with Iran, Syria and North Korea.
China-Russia Relations: Prospects
The authors of the article and our experts share the same opinion: there are several factors preventing Russia and China from tighter cooperation. Apart from multiple conflicts of interests, both Russia and China are interested in the wellbeing of the USA and the EU.
· The EU and the USA are China’s trading partners number 1 and 2 respectively (Russia is number 9).
· The EU is Russia’s trading partner number 1 (China is an underdog).
Even a minor crisis in the USA almost instantly affects Russia and China. China’s is the biggest holder of the US debt. Therefore, China is interested in the USA’s solvency. Russia’s currency reserves consist mostly of euro and US dollars. This means that Russia is also interested in stability in the West.
As for the Russian Ruble, its exchange rate is rather a political issue. If oil prices don’t collapse, Russia’s central bank won’t allow the national currency to weaken against the US Dollar above 35.00. if to consider the current interest rates, this means that foreign-currency and national-currency investments have identical yields. Still, there is no reason to assume that the Russian Ruble will see major strengthening this year, Masterforex-V Academy experts assume. The chart below, courtesy of Masterforex-V Academy, reflects the current state of affairs in the market of USDRUB:
