Latest news with #China-Russia
The Star
2 days ago
- Science
- The Star
China and Russia relaunch maritime research missions, eyeing Arctic ambitions
For the first time in five years, China and Russia have set sail on a joint oceanographic expedition, a research mission to learn more about the evolution of oceans and the forces behind global climate change. A total of 25 members from the two countries are on board the research ship Akademik M.A. Lavrentyev, which left the port of Vladivostok on Tuesday, according to China's First Institute of Oceanography (FIO) under the Ministry of Natural Resources. The ninth such expedition for the two countries – and the first since the pandemic – is focused on the effects of a changing climate on deep-sea environments, according to Chinese authorities. The expedition, jointly launched by FIO and the Pacific Oceanological Institute (POI) at the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is expected to last 45 days, during which researchers will conduct environmental surveys in the Bering Sea and the northwestern Pacific Ocean. They will explore the response systems and feedback effects in the region over the last 126,000 years, a period known as the Late Quaternary. The FIO said on its website that the scientists would investigate source-to-sink sediment processes, which are the cycles of deposit movement from land into water. 'The resumption of China-Russia joint oceanographic surveys shows [a] shared commitment to addressing global climate change and exploring cutting-edge marine science, and marks a new chapter in bilateral marine research cooperation,' said Wang Jun, acting head of the Chinese consulate general in Vladivostok, according to a report by state news agency Xinhua. Denis Makarov, director of the POI, said the research would help to reconstruct the evolution of oceans and climate to better predict the impact of current and future climate change on regional marine ecosystems, fisheries, transport and other related fields. A total of 110 Chinese scientists have taken part in the joint expeditions since they were first launched in 2010, according to the ministry. The research areas have expanded beyond the Sea of Japan – also known as the East Sea – the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea and now include several Arctic areas, including the Chukchi, East Siberian, Laptev and Kara seas. Aside from maritime expeditions, the two countries have also collaborated on projects such as the first China-Russia Marine Science Symposium, held in Qingdao, in eastern China's Shandong province in 2009. The event attracted more than 120 scientists from 25 Russian and Chinese research institutions. In 2017, the FIO and POI set up a joint research centre on oceanology and climate, the ministry said. Last year, the two nations agreed to set up a subcommittee to cooperate on the Northern Sea Route – which spans 5,600km (3,500 miles) from the Barents Sea near Scandinavia to the Bering Strait near Alaska – amid growing geopolitical tensions between both countries and the West. The effort is aimed at promoting the role of Arctic passages in international sailing, improving icebreaker capacities, and encouraging Sino-Russian shipping cooperation in the region. The collaboration on the Northern Sea Route is also focused on sailing development, shipping security, and vessel technology and construction for the Arctic. In addition to the Northern Sea Route along Russia's northern coastline, Beijing has been considering the viability of two other Arctic passages: the Northwest Passage running mostly through Canadian waters and a potential transpolar route crossing the North Pole. Beijing put forward its plan for a 'Polar Silk Road' – as a complement to its massive infrastructure scheme, the Belt and Road Initiative – in a 2018 white paper that envisioned greater access to the Arctic's rich natural resources and a bigger role in its governance. Besides scientific research and commercial shipping, maritime defence has also been a priority. In October, the Chinese coastguard joined its Russian counterpart on a patrol for the first time, sailing from the North Pacific to the Arctic Ocean. In March, China held a joint naval exercise with Russia and Iran in the Indian Ocean, which included simulated attacks on maritime targets, joint search and rescue drills, and spot checks and arrests. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
NZ Herald
5 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
A deepening embrace since Russia's invasion of Ukraine signals a turnaround in the two countries' ties
Trade between the two countries exceeded US$240 billion ($396b) last year, up by two-thirds since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. China has supplied many of the drones and drone components used by Russia in the conflict. China's staunch support for Russia's economy has helped Moscow survive: Dozens of countries have barred Russia from much of the global financial system, upending its economy at home. China has had the opposite reaction to Russia's war on Ukraine. 'China-Russia relations represent the most stable, mature and strategically significant major-country relationship in the world today,' Wang Yi, China's Foreign Minister, said this month after meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. By backing Russia so enthusiastically, China's leaders have put new strain on their country's relationship with the European Union. If Beijing had distanced itself from Moscow, Europe might have turned towards China as United States President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on European goods this year. European Union leaders met Chinese officials last night NZT at a summit in Beijing. They were expected to ask again that Xi Jinping, China's top leader, reduce China's economic and industrial support for Russia's war in Ukraine. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said this month that China's stance on the war in Ukraine would be 'a determining factor' for the bloc's relations with Beijing. 'China's unyielding support for Russia is creating heightened instability and insecurity here in Europe,' she said. 'We can say that China is de facto enabling Russia's war economy — we cannot accept this.' Shoppers take photos outside of a Russian-themed store in the border town of Manzhouli, in China's Inner Mongolia. China now makes 32% of the world's manufactured goods - more than the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Britain combined. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times Much of the trade between China and Russia has long run through Manzhouli. Russia built a rail line through the city into northeastern China in 1900. Today, trains and trucks from Russia cross into China, many of them carrying timber or freshly cut boards: pine for construction and furniture, white birch for chopsticks, aspen for framing concrete and sturdy elm for coal mine supports. The flow underscores Russia's diminished economic position. It is now functionally an economic satellite of China, dependent on Beijing for manufactured goods while selling raw materials that China could, if it wanted to, buy elsewhere. Almost 6% of the entire Russian economy now consists of exports to China. That is a proportion equalled by Iran, another country under international sanctions. As part of pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire, Trump threatened last week to impose high tariffs or other sanctions on countries trading with Russia, although he did not name China. Manzhouli's official economic strategy — 'Russian supply, Chinese processing' — underlines Russia's evolution into a supplier of raw materials to China's vast manufacturing sector, which dwarfs Russia's own. Russia depends on China for clothing, electronics, even cars. China's northbound exports have risen 71% since the start of the Ukraine war. Visitors at Matryoshka Square, a theme park in the border town of Manzhouli. Much of the trade between China and Russia has long run through Manzhouli. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times The trade alliance shows up in other contexts, too. State media in China has tilted strongly towards Russia in the Ukraine war. Russian television channels have been gradually squeezing out American channels in Chinese hotels. China's sympathies show up on store shelves in Manzhouli: Stalin-brand vodka and ground coffee are on sale, and one store even specialises in busts of past Soviet leaders and matryoshka dolls that resemble President Vladimir Putin. The new embrace signals a turnaround in the two countries' relationship. During the 1950s, Soviet advisers helped a mostly rural, underdeveloped China build many of its early steel mills, railroads and weapons factories. Now, China produces 32% of the world's manufactured goods — more than the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, and Britain combined. Russia's share of global manufacturing? It's just 1.33%, even including Russia's weapons production, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation. Trucks made in China parked at the border in Manzhouli. By late last summer, Chinese cars made up 60% of Russia's auto market, according to GlobalData Automotive. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times China is also benefitting from the imports. By buying timber and other goods from Russia, through Manzhouli, Beijing has been able to avoid buying imports from the US and its allies. China used to buy raw materials such as rapeseed from Canada, for example, but has shifted to purchasing more of these goods from Russia after Canada mostly sided with President Joe Biden last year and then with Trump in imposing higher tariffs on Chinese goods. China retaliated against Canada by imposing tariffs of 100% on imports of canola oil and canola meal from Canada. China also began a trade case against Canadian rapeseed, targeting some of Canada's largest exports to China. At the Manzhouli Xinfeng Grain and Oil Industry Limited Company, bright red forklift trucks move sacks of supplies. The highly automated factory, less than 1.5km from the border, removes the hulls from Russian rapeseed and presses them to make canola oil. Huang Baoqiang, the managing director of a nearby lumber mill, said his company bought large quantities of timber from neighbouring Siberia and turned them into bed slats and other furniture components. The US Treasury Department has tried to block the use of dollars for transactions with Russia, but Huang said he was able to pay with Chinese renminbi or Russian roubles through VTB Bank. The bank, one of Russia's largest financial institutions, faced sanctions by the US and the EU soon after Russia invaded Ukraine. But while Russia and China increasingly trade with each other, there are a few signs of tension. The rail yard in Manzhouli. Soviet advisers helped build steel mills, railways and arms factories in China in the 1950s, but now Russia supplies raw materials in exchange for manufactured goods. Photo / Andrea Verdelli, the New York Times Russia has banned the shipment of freshly cut pines to China. So the bark is removed from pines, and the logs are cut into boards at sawmills in Siberia, to the annoyance of businesspeople such as Huang. China, in turn, imposed tariffs on imports of Russian coal at the start of last year after state-owned Chinese coal mines expanded output and complained of Russian competition. The biggest stress in the trade relationship involves cars. In 2021, Chinese cars weren't very popular in Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Western automakers withdrew from the country, and Chinese automakers slashed prices. Chinese cars captured 60% of the Russian market by late summer last year, according to GlobalData Automotive, a research firm. Russia's own automakers had initially been expected to benefit from the retreat of their Western competitors and were disappointed by China's success. They persuaded Moscow to start collecting a US$7500 fee on imported cars. The fee, which started on October 1, has an exemption: It does not apply to used cars purchased by Russian citizens for their personal use. China's car exports to Russia in the first five months of this year plunged 58% from a year earlier. 'It's a big bucket of cold water on what Chinese automakers expected to be their top market for years to come,' said Stephen Dyer, head of the Asia automotive practice at AlixPartners, a consulting firm. Chinese entrepreneurs in Manzhouli are already exploiting the used car loophole in Russia's rules. A block from the Russian border, a year-old palace of a used car showroom in Manzhouli has towering bronze doors that open up to a 25m-high hall, all designed to lure Russian shoppers who want to beat the US$7500 fee. On sale are barely used BMWs, Land Rovers, Volkswagens and other popular brands no longer sold in Russia, as well as Chinese brands such as Zeekr and Hongqi. The staff explained that new cars were not available — but that used cars only a month old could be purchased and shipped. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Keith Bradsher Photographs by: Andrea Verdelli ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
India.com
29-06-2025
- Politics
- India.com
Is Putin planning to teach Trump a lesson? Russia's dangerous plan against the US revealed, BIG threat for India too, Pakistan also plans to...
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump New Delhi: Russia is planning to train at least 600 Chinese soldiers this year. According to the reports, the aim is to counter weapons used by the US and NATO. As per the Ukrainian media, Moscow will provide this training to Chinese troops at its own military bases and centers. This training program is part of a broader strategy in which Chinese soldiers will be taught the skills and tactics that Russia used in the war against Ukraine. To recall, there have been reports earlier suggesting that China has started training Pakistani fighter pilots on the J-35 stealth fighter jet. In addition, there have been several instances in past years where reports emerged that Chinese forces were providing training to the Pakistani military. However, Pakistan has officially denied these reports. Why the US Should Be Concerned About the Growing China-Russia Alliance According to the reports, the Chinese troops will be trained to counter Western weapons. The main focus will be given to preparing air defense specialists, engineers, tank operators, and artillery units. Security experts are concerned about the strengthening ties between Beijing and Moscow. Notably, China's border dispute with India still remains unresolved. In this context, Russia's plan may also cause concern for India, as China shares a border of several thousand kilometers with India, with many areas under dispute. Is China Helping Russia Against Ukraine? Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that China has stopped selling drones to Kyiv and other European countries, but drones are still being supplied to Russia. During the early stages of the war with Russia, Ukraine was heavily dependent on Chinese drones like the DJI Mavic. Zelensky told Bloomberg that Chinese Mavics are available to the Russians but not to the Ukrainians. There are production lines in Russian territory where Chinese representatives are present. This indicates that China is helping Russia. China and Russia Collaborating to Build Attack Drones Ukraine has no facilities to manufacture drones and relies on its allies for the same. Its goal is to produce 300 to 500 drones every 24 hours. The Ukrainian president stated that there is no issue with production capacity; the problem lies in financing. In other words, Ukraine has the capability to produce drones, but lacks the necessary funds. Ukraine lacks funds to build drones Ukraine wants to produce 300 to 500 drones every day, but it is facing a shortage of funds. Meanwhile, China and Russia are jointly developing attack drones. China still relies on Russia for support in certain areas, such as missile and submarine production. Although China claims to be neutral, it appears to be more aligned with Russia.
Express Tribune
02-06-2025
- Business
- Express Tribune
From Russia, with Love
As the West-led, post-WWII global order undergoes a major transformation amidst turbulence and volatility, the building blocks of an alternative worldview are evident in Pakistan's vicinity. Recent journeys to Beijing and Moscow have confirmed the contours of a huge transition, driven by decline of the West and rise of the East. As President Xi Jinping famously told President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Moscow on March 22, 2023, "Right now, there are changes, the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years, and we are the ones driving these changes together." These changes refer to the tectonic shifts in the global balance of economic, political, military, scientific and technological power, from the West to the East, shifts which are inexorable and irreversible. In this context, Pakistan's military, political and diplomatic victory over India in last month's 16 hours of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation is also having ramifications that go beyond the region, changing the South Asian geopolitical landscape. Perceptions of India and Pakistan, in the eyes of allies and adversaries, have been altered. The big picture presents an outlook that has pluses for Pakistan, providing Pakistan with strategic space, in an altered geopolitical landscape. Three new realities in terms of relationships among four key regional powers - China, Russia, Pakistan and India - are clearly evident. First, the China-Russia alliance is rock-solid, cemented by their adversaries attempts to ignite a new Cold War, as well as Trump's failed trade and tariff war. Both Beijing and Moscow are of the view that the Western world, centred on the EuroAtlantic, with NATO as its military arm, is determined to 'contain' both of these giants, in Asia and Europe respectively. Hence, the possibility of a 'Reverse Nixon' is non-existent. 'Reverse Nixon' is the naive notion peddled by some in the Washington Establishment, who felt that just as President Nixon, in the 1970s, had delinked China from the Soviet Union to form a Sino-US alliance that ultimately proved decisive in the defeat of the Soviet Union, a similar manoeuvre now by the US to delink Russia from China could jointly pressure China. Both China and Russia are now deeply committed to jointly building Eurasia as the global strategic centre for both geopolitics and geoeconomics. Second, the Pak-China strategic partnership has been solidified in the recent struggle in a new qualitative manner, as rock solid as the China-Russia relationship. Reinforcing this is the fact that Moscow no longer views Pakistan through Indian lenses, and there's a new-found respect and liking for Pakistan in the Russian political establishment. Russia is now ready to build a closer rapport with Pakistan, an outreach in which Russian disillusionment with India is also a factor. Third, after meeting Russia's highly experienced Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and listening to his landmark 29 May speech at the Eurasian Forum in Perm, Russia, where, for the first time, he criticised India's role in the Western sponsored military arrangements like the Indo-Pacific Strategy and QUAD, in front of an audience that included a dozen BJP parliamentarians and party activists, shows that the first cracks have appeared in the bond between Delhi and Moscow. Trump's India-specific embarrassing statements (calling for reviving the Kashmir dispute and rehyphenating Pakistan with India), Pakistan's May 10 victory over India and China's May 14 announcement of giving Indian-occupied Arunachal Pradesh a new Chinese name, Zangnan have added to India's isolation and discomfiture. The Big Three - US, China and Russia - are now collectively equidistant from India. The narrow-based, insular, divisive Hindutva regime in Delhi offers limited appeal to the Big Three, more so, since its arrogance and hubris were decisively punctured by Pakistan's demolition of the 'Shining India' military myth in May. No wonder it is Whining India now, carrying on a chorus of cribbing and complaining about Pakistan in world capitals. A key change in the Russia-India relations is that, irrespective of the regime ruling New Delhi, Russia also had a deep ingress in the Indian political establishment. Now with a weakened Left in India, almost a non-relationship of Moscow with the Congress Party and Kremlin's discomfiture with the ruling BJP's deep-seated pro-Americanism, Russia's political bond with India has weakened. Russia has prioritised ties with China and is willing to seek greener pastures in South Asia with a more confident and reliable Pakistan. Meanwhile, Lavrov's speech at the Eurasian Forum on May 29 had three key planks: 1) Building new security architecture in the Eurasian continent (largest and wealthiest) is necessary given 'approaching end of centuries-long Western dominance and advent of multipolar era', with Eurasia replacing EuroAtlantic as the center of gravity in global affairs. 2) Within Eurasia, the centerpiece is where the region's four nuclear powers - China, Russia, Pakistan and India - are located, with Indian participation in the Western military schemes like Indo-Pacific Strategy and QUAD causing discomfiture to both Beijing and Moscow. 3) "Four years after its ignominious retreat from Afghanistan, NATO is once again seeking new points of entry into Afghanistan." However, the most telling of Lavrov's remarks was his unvarnished critique of India's participation in QUAD, as during preliminary discussions with the Russians, India "emphasised that their intent was confined exclusively to trade, economic and other peaceful domains of collaboration". But to the surprise of Russia, India did the opposite of what they promised to Russia: "in practice, however, the QUAD nations (India, US, Japan and Australia) are already endeavouring, with notable persistence, to organise naval (military) exercises!" In another first, Lavrov specifically attacked the Indo-Pacific Strategy, linking it directly to India's role, saying that such a nomenclature "had never existed and NATO made it up to drag India into their anti-China schemes". In other words, India is being viewed in Moscow as a willing accomplice of and collaborator in the West's anti-China games, which are synonymous with anti-Russia policies. Given this context, Pakistan has strategic space and a unique opportunity to outflank India in the heart of Eurasia. With better ties now emerging with Iran and Afghanistan, a solid and stable relationship with China and a sympathetic perspective from Moscow, plus an assertive South Asia that has rejected Indian hegemony, Pakistan should consolidate its gains, with a healing touch at home and a region-centric foreign policy that leverages its role, relationships and respect into strategic dividends for the country. These developments provide an opportunity for a strategic reset in foreign policy: with Russia; with our Western neighbours like Iran and Afghanistan; and with the smaller states of South Asia. The last such opportunity that arose for a strategic reset with Russia was after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, but it was squandered due to the flawed obsession with 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan. Let it not be said "we never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity."
NDTV
01-06-2025
- Business
- NDTV
Russia "Immediate" Danger, China "Sophisticated" Challenge: Key UK Report
London: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government is set to publish the strategic defence review on Monday, which is expected to warn of challenges posed by Russia and China. The review, a 10-year plan for military equipment and services, will warn of the "immediate and pressing" danger posed by Russia, according to a report by British newspaper The Guardian on Saturday. The 130-page document, prepared by a team headed by former NATO secretary general George Robertson, will also describe China as a "sophisticated and persistent challenge", which at times has been willing to cooperate with Russia, and two smaller "regional disruptors" - Iran and North Korea, the report said. Since the war broke out in Ukraine in 2022, Russia has signed key deals with several of the West's adversaries, China, Iran and North Korea. The review, which was put together by Mr Robertson alongside Fiona Hill, a former US presidential advisor, and Richard Barrons, a former British commander, is also likely to question the size of the British army, which currently is around 1 lakh. On Saturday, the European Union's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also said that Europe saw the China-Russia threat as the world's "greatest challenge". "When China and Russia speak of leading together changes not seen in a hundred years and of revisions of the global security order, we should all be extremely worried," Ms Kallas told an audience at the Shangri-La security conference in Singapore. "If you are worried about China, you should be worried about Russia," she added. Six New Weapons Factories In UK The UK government on Saturday said it will build at least six new factories producing weapons and explosives as part of a major review of its defence capabilities. The Ministry of Defence said that the Mr Starmer-led government will invest more than £1 billion in 'Digital Targeting Web' to "spearhead battlefield engagements, applying lessons learnt from Ukraine to the UK Armed Forces". "The hard-fought lessons from Putin's illegal war in Ukraine leave us under no illusions that future conflicts will be won through forces that are better connected, better equipped and innovating faster than their adversaries," Defence Secretary John Healey said in a statement. "We will give our Armed Forces the ability to act at speeds never seen before - connecting ships, aircraft, tanks and operators so they can share vital information instantly and strike further and faster," he added.
