Russia willing to ‘soften the border’ in exchange for China’s support, political scientist says

we can speak now to political scientist Dr una Alexandra Bina chova who is the head of the China studies Center at Ria stardens University thank you very much indeed for joining us um as we saw in that report lots of smiles handshakes warm words uh does that paint the full picture do you think well certainly that’s what’s being on display but I think the full picture of course is also painted by the um the statements that have come out for example the Chinese side has been taking it had been taking it slow on publicizing the joint statement whereas the Russian side immediately almost immediately put it out but of course yes we see a lot of pageantry here and that is the message who needs who more I mean what’s Beijing trying to get from Moscow what’s Moscow trying to get from Beijing do you think um so we saw that Moscow SP the Russian delegation spoke about a whole area of issues and actually included China in its vision of history and future but at the same time they also agreed on many of the Chinese worldview aspects of of cing Ping’s worldview aspects you know such as um the global initiatives that China is pushing so what they wanted um that the that the topics that they kind of were pushing for covered of course economy economy matters we know for for for um for Russia as they are involved in in in an attack against Ukraine um the military also came up and uh um there were uh the conversation also spoke about cooperation in deep space but that’s not a new topic but that was uh kind of spoken up again culture links uh Putin went to Harbin for a reason Harbin is a city that has strong cultural links with Russia media actually there were several interesting um agreements signed between Sia the Chinese state news agency and several russan Media Partners another interesting thing that Russia is willing to probably give and show in exchange for the things that it wants is the messages towards so almost softening the Border uh we saw the uh the parties speak about the establishing of a trans border reserve for big cats for example uh and another one which is extremely curious uh how to jointly develop the big Island the very same island that the two countries had been in argument about historically and the very same island that caused an outrage in Russia last year when reportedly Chinese official Maps included all of its territory under the Chinese territory so quite a list quite a list of course Ukraine sort of the elephant in the room really I mean Beijing says it doesn’t help Moscow with regards to the Ukraine war effort Beijing maintains its neutral with regards to the war in Ukraine should we believe that well both sides are framing Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the same way in one voice which is we are pushing this is a push back against us heemy and the joint statement speaks about addressing the root causes of the war of the crisis as they call it which of course according to the Russian and Chinese joint statements means that they seeing is that it’s NATO’s expansion that has caused the situation so in that sense China it doesn’t really get any more pro-russian than that but when it comes to practical support uh of course China knows what it’s gambling with and it does understand just now with the meetings in the EU which in in Europe red large which cing ping attended and also his meetings with the US counterparts there is of course is the risk I my my my guess is that probably the Russian side gave very optimistic accounts of their military advances and hinted you know a little bit of help can go a long way but whether or not Beijing actually will provide such help given the risks that remains to be seen um last week continue to provide sure I mean last week president shiin ping was doing a little tour of Europe he made the first stop Paris and I think president macron was quite Keen to try and persuade him to exert some influence over Moscow uh with regards to the war in Ukraine I’m just wondering you know it’s been what 10 days since those talks in Paris do you think uh they paid any dividends well we do not see that in the readouts we do not see that in the pedantry furthermore we actually see that Russia is also uh trying to lend some support where it matters for China um and that is the one of the joint statements one of the statements had mentioned Aus as a threat calling out Australia specifically as this big issue in international relations in whose interest in that whose bidding is that obviously China so no um we do not see any signals that Beijing is in a hurry to um teach or to talk to Putin on on uh somehow de-escalating in Ukraine and we did see that during the press conference they call for a political solution but a political solution basically is impossible at this point from the Ukrainian perspective because a political solution that Russia and also China um is would would be okay with basically would mean loss of territory of Ukraine okay we’re going to have to leave it there because we’re out of time but I would love to talk to you for longer thank you so much political scientist Dr un Alexander Bina chairing kova thank you very much indeed for speaking to us the authorities in Slovakia have

As the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping wraps up, Tom Burges Watson speaks to political scientist Dr Una Aleksandra Berzina-Cerenkova, Head of the China Studies Centre at Riga Stardins University, about how far will Russia go to secure the support of Beijing.
#China #Russia #Ukraine

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35 comments

  1. Incredible, Putin is willing to lose thousands of soldiers for a tiny town like Bakhmut, but is flirting with giving China bits of Russia that are historically Chinese…what's the logic?

  2. If Russia is willing to return the claimed territory back to China, it’s probable they will do all out support for Russia.

  9. Who has upper hand, who need more, from the position of strength are the common behavior west use to bully weak countries.

    China foreign policy is consistently focus on mutual respect, and win win cooperation. China consistently use the same approach to all countries, regardless who they are.

  11. I think only some European countries take heed of the US requests, even if the requests are against their own interest. China, and any other descent countries, wouldn't give much of a hoot.

  14. Expanding NATO Military 12 -31 states to Russian doorstep,,,Buildup Russian strong and stronger,, as same time weaker and weaker EU… Poor EU taxpayers + More and More Ukrainian suffering 😢

  15. Border infrastructure and policing is expensive. Not many understand that border control was the straw that collapsed the USSR. As will it contribute to a collapse of Russia.
    When communist Hungary couldn’t afford controlling its border, it asked the USSR for funds. The USSR, engaged in the costly arms race and an occupation in Afghanistan, couldn’t afford it either. This meant that the Berlin wall lost its function. The East Germans just traveled to Hungary and easily crossed into Austria… then hitchhiked to West Germany. So the wall was pointless and fell… as did communism and the USSR.

    This is just an early symptom for the inevitable collapse of Russia.

    Russia’s border towards NATO has already doubled. And the Russians taxpayers haven’t yet began to pay for the increased spendings needed. And if Russia in some way would be able to invade and occupy Ukraine, it will have tripled the border towards NATO.
    And Russia won’t be able to afford protecting its borders in the east towards hostile elements in Muslim world either… making it easy for ISIS and drugs (for the Russian war veterans) to enter.

    Add a costly and indefinite occupation of Ukraine if Russia would manage to invade it… Invasion is the easy and cheap part in comparison to an occupation. (Putin and the Russians likely believing that if they reach Kyiv, they have won, and the troops then just can leave. But no… instead there must be more troops added.)

    Plus a 20% of GDP cost for an arms race with the west. Because the NATO nations have a common GDP that is at least ten times larger than Russia’s. And they will soon spend more than 2% of their GDP on their defense. 2×10 = 20% to be able to keep up. Not 6% as is Putin’s too optimistic ambition. The USSR had to spend 17%. And we know how that ended: No money for border security, and the following collapse.

  19. China is going to force Russia to "soften the border" so much that the Chinese will annex the "Russian Far East," the Amur Annexation territories, and Siberia after Putin is defeated in Ukraine.

  30. I wonder if Vladivostok will come under joint Russian & Chinese control as part of a deal.

    China calls it by its Chinese name as they lost it to Russia during the Century of Humiliation after all.

  31. Western commentators are so impregnated with propaganda they're no longer able to see the obvious. The most important part of the visit by far is missed by Western media. It concerned the strong emphasis on the new multipolar world. The break with the old powers and new structuring of BRICS. The break from western institutions such as the IMF, World Bank. This is not just about China and Russia but the rest of the world. The break away of Russia and China from the West is now PERMANENT and irreversible. This is hugely important.

  33. So wait, I was right?
    Russia sent Eastern Russians to Ukraine first because it borders China, that's why they were sent first?
    The needs of the many and if the many are in the Western part of Russia…
    Interesting.
    Almost looks like democracy, except it's imposed and sinister, which makes it left and right wing, which makes it gaslight.

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