The ‘inside track’ of Putin-Xi Jinping talks

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (C) addressing the Council for Foreign and Defence Policy, Moscow, May 18, 2024 In international diplomacy, summit meetings stand apart from regular high-level meetings when they are held at key moments or important junctures to reinforce partnerships and/or launch major initiatives.  The summit meeting at Beijing last Thursday between Chinese President …

Biden reaches out to Xi Jinping with eye on financial stability

The US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen arrived in Guangzhou on the first leg of a six-day visit to China, April 4, 2024 The salience of the phone call from the US President Joe Biden to  Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday is their consensus that during the period since their summit meeting in Woodside, California, …

China-US decoupling gushes out

In a flurry of statements on Friday against the backdrop of escalating US-China tensions, five of China’s biggest state-owned companies announced their intent to delist from the New York Stock Exchange — PetroChina Co Ltd, China Life Insurance Co, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp, Aluminium Corp of China and Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co. which represent …

Russia-China alliance at the tipping point

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Chinese President Xi Jinping after their talks, Kremlin, Moscow, June 5, 2019. The initiative by Beijing to propose a virtual meeting between President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday radically transforms the geopolitics of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s relentless eastward expansion and the Western military …

Sino-Russian collusion over Taiwan, Ukraine seems improbable but isn’t

US has whipped up war hysteria over satellite image of Russian military camp in Yelnya, over 500 kms from Ukraine border, to allege Moscow’s invasion plans and to justify NATO involvement   The “feel-good” from Tuesday’s  virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping leaps out of the US-Russian summit in Geneva in June.  Biden’s …