Tag: Russia

Xi, Putin and the Danger of Aging Dictators

Media Library

Kim Il-sung of North Korea was another leader who acted aggressively in his later years. Emboldened by the U.S. quagmire in Vietnam and its subsequent military drawdown from Asia, he spent his third and fourth decades in power going from provocation to provocation. Between 1968 and 1988, his regime seized a U.S. intelligence ship and its crew; shot down a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, killing all 31 aboard; tried to assassinate a South Korean president on multiple occasions and killed dozens of South Korean officials, including the first lady; bombed a…

Putin and Xi are the Laurel and Hardy of statesmen – but it’s no laughing matter | Simon Tisdall

Media Library

It must be tough, being a dictator, when your diktats are ignored, thwarted and scorned. Vladimir Putin is a sad case in point. He ordered the glorious reintegration of Ukraine into his imaginary Russian empire. What he got was an existential crisis that he couldn’t control. China’s president, Xi Jinping, is another paramount leader with dictatorship issues. Xi presumes to exercise supreme control, channelling Mao Zedong like a card-carrying Communist party Zeus – yet repeatedly messes up. Xi’s signature tune could be the chorus to Moby’s Extreme Ways: “Then it…

China has its own reasons for being at Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia

Media Library

When the Chinese envoy Li Hui arrived in Saudi Arabia, to join international talks on a peace deal for Ukraine this week, it was a pointed contrast with Beijing’s decision to skip a similar forum in Copenhagen in June. At the summit, which excluded Russia, Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskiy promoted his vision for ending the war to a large gathering of countries from the global south. His 10-point plan would mean the total, humiliating defeat of Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping’s closest and most important major ally. China’s representative, a mid-level…

The Guardian view on China and Ukraine: beware great expectations | Editorial

Media Library

Straddles are, by their nature, uncomfortable positions to maintain. So it isn’t surprising that China’s attempt to hold together conflicting interests on the war in Ukraine – maintaining its “no limits” partnership with Russia, without damaging its relationship with western nations and its tarnished global brand too greatly – has proved awkward. Attention increased when its special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, joined talks in Jeddah last weekend, having avoided similar talks in Copenhagen earlier this summer. European officials described China’s involvement as “active” and said that it “appeared…

UAE, a US Ally, Looks to China and Russia for Deeper Ties

Media Library

The ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, is a key American ally who counts on the United States to defend his country. But he has traveled twice to Russia over the past year to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin, and in June, his country was celebrated as the guest of honor at the Russian leader’s flagship investment forum. Later this month, the Emirati and Chinese air forces plan to train together for the first time, a notable shift for an oil-rich Gulf nation that has…

US dispatches warships after China and Russia send naval patrol near Alaska

Media Library

The US dispatched four navy warships as well as a reconnaissance airplane after multiple Chinese and Russian military vessels carried out a joint naval patrol near Alaska last week. The combined naval patrol, which the Wall Street Journal first reported, appeared to be the largest such flotilla to approach US territory, according to experts that spoke to the outlet. “It’s a historical first,” Brent Sadler, a retired Navy captain and senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told the Journal. He also said the flotilla’s proximity to Alaska was a…

China ‘backs further Ukraine peace talks’ after Saudi Arabia summit

Media Library

China is said to be in support of a third round of talks to find a framework for peace in Ukraine after a meeting of senior officials from about 40 countries in Saudi Arabia over the weekend. The two-day summit in Jeddah was the second of its kind, after a similar forum in Copenhagen earlier this summer, and aims to draft key principles on how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he hoped the initiative would lead to a “peace summit” of world leaders this…

Ukraine Invites Talks in Saudi Arabia as an Effort to Weaken Russia

Media Library

Ukraine will make a renewed push this weekend at a gathering in Saudi Arabia to win the support of dozens of countries that have remained on the sidelines of the war — the start of a broader campaign in the months ahead to build the diplomatic muscle to isolate and weaken Russia. Ukraine and Saudi Arabia invited diplomats from some 40 governments to talks in the Red Sea port of Jeddah. Notable among them were China, India, Brazil, South Africa and some of the oil-rich Gulf nations that have tried…

Saudi Arabia to Extend Oil Production Cut by a Month

Media Library

In a move to support oil prices, Saudi Arabia said Thursday it would extend its decision to cut oil production by one million barrels a day for another month, to September. Oil prices have recovered strongly in recent weeks partly because of smaller stockpiles of fuel in the United States, but China’s tepid economic recovery has kept oil prices under pressure for most of the year. Saudi leaders need oil prices to stay high because the money from energy sales pays for government spending and ambitious plans to diversify the…

North Korea showcases attack drones during show of unity with China and Russia

Media Library

North Korea has carried out demonstration flights of new military drones, state media reported, as leader Kim Jong-un shared centre stage with senior delegates from Russia and China in a show of unity at a parade in the capital. State media said on Friday that Kim rolled out his most powerful, nuclear-capable missiles during the “Victory Day” parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of the armistice that stopped fighting in the Korean War. Joining Kim were Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu and Chinese ruling party official Li Hongzhong.…