Heine’s Insights on Sino-Russian Ties
Ambassador Jorge Heine, Research Professor at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, was recently featured in an El País article titled, “How Putin’s Global Network Aids and Abets his Ambitions,” on Russia’s allies with other countries, including China, North Korea, and Iran.
Heine summarized Russia’s realignment as a shift from a foreign policy that was Europe-focused to one more Eurasia-focused. After Russia’s break with European countries, the Kremlin has emphasized burgeoning alliances with Eurasian countries and working towards official diplomatic and economic partnerships. Heine references an Russia-Iran joint infrastructure project as evidence of a solidifying connection.
“Although publicly there is talk of a relationship without limits, that is rhetorical. Of course, there are limits. China doesn’t trade arms and drives a hard bargain on Russian gas. There is some rivalry between the two over the Central Asian space. The relationship is not based on charity, but on interests. But both show signs of wanting to manage the rivalry, because it is in their interest to agree and face what they understand as the challenge from the West and NATO together. China and Russia have always had some converging and some diverging interests. But now, unlike in the not too distant past, the former predominate.”
The article can be accessed in full here.
Ambassador Jorge Heine is a Research Professor at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He has served as ambassador of Chile to China (2014-2017), to India (2003-2007), and to South Africa (1994-1999), and as a Cabinet Minister in the Chilean Government. Read more about Ambassador Heine on his Pardee School faculty profile.