UWI author, historian, and political scientist Associate Professor Mehmet Perinçek joined CGTN Türk Radio as a guest to evaluate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s 19-20th May visit to China.
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Changes not seen for 100 years
Dr. Perinçek, let’s start with your general evaluation. What do you think this visit means?
Putin’s visit cannot be viewed as a routine bilateral relationship. Remember that during his visit to the Kremlin in March 2023, Xi Jinping told Putin, “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.” Putin’s current visit represents one of the important steps in building a new world order. So it is a meeting that concerns not just Russia-China relations, but directly linked to the establishment of a multipolar world.
Fields of cooperation
The meetings cover several important agendas. Chief among them is the issue of security. While the situations in Ukraine and Taiwan remain primary concerns for the two countries, this security framework extends beyond Russia and China, encompassing the creation of a global security system capable of shielding the peoples and countries all around the world from the aggressive policies of the Atlantic front.
Of course, countering Atlantic aggression is not achieved solely through military means. Russia and China are also engaged in substantial cooperation against the dominance of the US dollar. Both countries have begun taking significant steps toward the dedollarization of their bilateral economies and international trade. Given that the US has reached a point where it threatens the global economy through trade wars, tariff policies, and sanctions, we can say that Moscow and Beijing are implementing countermeasures and will continue to do so moving forward.
With the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, the subject of logistics has settled onto the agenda of the entire world. The war in Ukraine and in Iran, and the blockage of world trade routes due to US impositions in other regions of the world (such as the blockade in Cuba and Venezuela), along with the fact that the US has made a habit of such threats, necessitated the development of serious projects between the two countries regarding logistics. Significant work is being carried out concerning the Arctic Ocean. The two countries are in close cooperation regarding the Belt and Road Initiative too.
While the multipolar system is being established, its international organizations are also strengthening and becoming appealing. There are numerous international organizations where Russia and China are together, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and BRICS. They both lead these international organizations and gather other countries around them. These organizations have begun to become a point of attraction not only for Africa and the Oppressed World, but now for different powers from different regions of the world up to the Gulf countries, and even for former allies of the US.
US’ failure: driving a wedge between Russia and China
There is one issue that is more important than all. The US is in a continuous effort to drive a wedge between Russia and China, or at least to neutralize one of them in the face of the threats directed to the other. In every American election we hear things like “Biden will draw China to his side and confront Russia” or the exact opposite for Trump, and so on. During the Cold War, the confrontation between China and Russia actually produced highly positive results for the Atlantic front, and perhaps played one of the important roles in the US winning the Cold War. So, for the Atlantic front, being able to maintain or bring back a unipolar world depends on creating a conflict between Russia and China, or at least preventing their potential cooperation.
However, at this point, it is seen that all of these attempts have resulted in failure. Neither could Biden detach China from Russia, nor could Trump neutralize Russia against China. It is no longer possible to pit these two countries against each other, but as we have seen, the US has failed even to keep them neutral toward one another. All the offers Trump made to Russia aimed to lure it by some “cooperations” on different matters from the Arctic Ocean to West Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, and international trade. But Russia has demonstrated that it pushes these offers aside and that it views China as its true strategic ally.
The US is “rival”, China is “strategic ally”
Former President and current Secretary of the Security Council Medvedev also expressed Russia’s relations with the US and China very succinctly in recent times. To paraphrase, he said “We don’t want to fight or be enemies with the US, nor are we at the point of enmity; however, strategically, the US is our rival. China, on the other hand, is our strategic ally.”
What has happened in recent years has shown that Russia and China relations are unshakeable, they need one another, and that they can only solve their own problems within the framework of strategic relations with each other. Moscow-Beijing relations will develop much further in the upcoming period with this visit and open the door to a future where countries struggling against imperialist aggression will gain important opportunities.
NATO, Russia and China
What will Putin’s visit signify in terms of the NATO-Russia tension?
We are in a period where the NATO threat concerns many countries, from the Eastern Mediterranean to Hormuz, the Black Sea, and Taiwan. In NATO’s recent decisions and texts, not only Russia but now China is also referred to as a threat. NATO countries, or the countries of the Atlantic front, have established various alliances like AUKUS in China’s surrounding region and have reached a point where they directly threaten China. This brings Russia and China much closer to one another. Russia is already in a war with NATO through Ukraine. Russian officials express this reality openly.
Following its military intervention in Ukraine, Russia faced pressure from the West in military, economic, and political senses and was intended to be isolated. Moscow thwarted this thanks to its cooperation with China, alongside its own capabilities. In other words, the fact that Russia’s economy wasn’t deeply wounded in the face of sanctions is also owed to its relations with China.
Against the policy of political isolation, Russia’s responses given within the framework of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization also demonstrate the importance of Beijing-Moscow relations.
In the military sense, even if the two countries don’t express these issues very openly, we can guess that there are various cooperations. In fact, the US imposes sanctions on various Chinese firms for this reason.
We see that NATO has entered a complete decline with the Iran war. There are internal cracks regarding the war in Iran and Ukraine and the open confrontation over Greenland. Neither the US nor European countries trust NATO, NATO’s security umbrella anymore, and they are digging a pit for each other. On the other side, Moscow-Beijing relations are developing in a much more sincere way and in trust and gathering strength.
These should be followed carefully by those who govern Türkiye, in terms of solving Türkiye’s problems. This visit, and the development of China-Russia relations in general, will present important opportunities to Türkiye as well.
If Iran had lost: consequences for Russia and China
What kind of results could the Putin-Xi meeting yield regarding the course of the war and the ceasefire in Iran?
The US attack on Iran wasn’t only on Iran, but also against China and Russia. If the US could have defeated Iran, it would have become a bigger threat to China, cutting off trade routes and energy resources. It would have cut off the north-south trade and logistics route by getting even closer to Russia’s near region and have been more advantageous regarding the war in Ukraine. And of course, it would have eliminated one of the most important partners of Russia and China.
When you look at the actions of the US in the world, they are somehow related to Russia or China in the end. US officials said “We actually don’t have a problem with Venezuela, but they are cooperating with Russia and China in the commercial, energy, and oil fields. This is the problem for us.” European Commission President von der Leyen said that cooperation with Russia, China, and Türkiye in the Balkans disturbs them. In Africa also, the effects and cooperations of Russia and China disturb the US and the West.
Russia and China regard the attack on Iran in this way. For this reason, they stood behind Iran and played an important role in Iran’s resistance and success. Russia and Iran had cooperations in the military field before the war. We know China contributed to Iran’s air defense systems. It is known that Russia has provided significant intelligence regarding various intelligence matters, including Iran’s missiles reaching their targets. We know China helped Iran produce a high number of missiles with the rare earth elements. Apart from these, we can imagine that there are numerous cooperations in the fields of military technology and intelligence not open to the public.
Just as Russia and China cannot do without each other, they cannot do without Iran either.
Mr. Perinçek, thank you very much for your comments.
You’re welcome.
