Analysts agree on key features of the Sino-Russian relationship: the growing power asymmetry between the two states; the weak economic foundation, especially when compared to Russia’s and China’s relations with other partners; and the centrality of the US factor in pushing both states towards closer cooperation. However, even though Russia and China seem united in the promotion of a multipolar international order, they play different roles in the global realm and exert varied influence in global institutions. The seminar will place the relationship in a broader context of both states’ foreign policies and their relations with the West, the US in particular. What role does Sino-Russian cooperation hold in the grand strategies of the two parties? What are the implications of closer ties between Moscow and Beijing for the West? Is a fully-fledged alliance what both parties have in mind concerning their partnership?
The seminar is part of a FIIA-led research project, entitled ‘Changing great power politics and its implications to Finland’, which is part of the implementation of the Government Plan for Analysis, Assessment and Research for 2018.
