Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to move to end his invasion of Ukraine without a push from Beijing, experts told lawmakers Wednesday – but frayed US-China tensions make the chances of that happening soon remote.
As Putin stares down the anniversary of his stalled attack on Feb. 24, there is “not much indication” he wants to reach a settlement with Kyiv anytime soon, Brookings Center senior fellow Fiona Hill told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“[He] feels that he has a lot of support from the rest of the world, including from China,” added Hill, a former National Security Council official and Trump impeachment witness. “Unfortunately, it may very well take countries like China pushing Russia for there to be any break in Putin’s resolve at this particular moment.”
Without China’s influence to the contrary, Hill said she expects the war to stretch on as “the circumstances on the ground are such that Putin really believes that he can push more manpower there.”
“It would have to be, I think, other countries beyond the United States and its Western allies demonstrating to Putin in some fashion — behind the scenes or more directly — that this war is not in their interest and that they want him to move towards the negotiating table,” Hill went on.
“We need to have a diplomatic initiative. We need to get the rest of the international community behind us in support of pushing Russia back.”
US diplomatic relations with China suffered a setback after it flew a spy balloon into American airspace on Jan. 28, prompting Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing. China claims the balloon was a “civilian airship” and protested President Biden’s Feb. 4 decision to shoot it down off South Carolina’s coast after letting it cross the continental US for a week, taking in sensitive military sites along the way. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Illustration by Linas Garsys/The Washington Times |
One year into the most devastating war in Europe since World War II, China is ruthlessly focused on taking maximum advantage of a weakened Russia and an isolated Vladimir Putin. For Beijing, Russia’s massive, unexpected reverses on the battlefield since invading Ukraine in February 2022 offer an opportunity to dominate the Kremlin and turbo-boost its own grand strategy of becoming the world’s dominant power by 2049.
Mr. Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met over 40 times since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012, relentlessly ratcheting up bilateral ties to challenge a U.S.-dominated “unipolar” world. Their armies routinely conduct major military exercises. They share intelligence and regularly coordinate their policies and messages against the U.S., NATO and the international rules-based order they seek to overthrow.
At a virtual summit in December, Mr. Putin described Russia’s relationship with Communist China as “the best in history” and invited Mr. Xi to visit Moscow this spring. Just before last year’s invasion, the two famously declared their partnership of dictators had “no limits.”
But among the many lessons to be gleaned so far from Russia’s murderous war on Ukraine is that today’s purported Sino-Russian alliance — just like the Soviet Union’s with Communist China in the last century — has clearly definable limits and, in many spheres, elements of outright competition.
And unlike during the Cold War, it’s China that is setting the boundaries this time. It is clear that Mr. Xi wants to win big at the expense of his “ally.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to +++++relevant+++++ and related stories:
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