China who is taking a harder common line which already reinforces a strong strategic partnership with Russia has pushed forward their robust energy cooperation during Dmitry Medvedev’s first foreign trip as Russian president.
Russia has signed a US$ 1 billion (euro 670 million) deal to build a uranium enrichment facility in China and supply low enriched uranium for use in China’s fast growing nuclear power industry over the next decade.
Rivals throughout much of the cold war. Moscow and Beijing have forged closed political and military ties since the soviet disintegration, seeking to counter the perceived US global domination.
They have spoken against the US missile defense plans in the past but recent joint declaration by Russian president Medvedev and Chinese premier Hu sounded tougher than before.
Without naming the US, the two leaders warned that the creation of the global missile defense systems and their deployment in some regions of the world does not help in maintaining strategic balance and stability, nonetheless, it hampers international effort in arms control and nuclear non proliferation, according to their joint accord.
Furthermore, they also warned against the deployment of arms in space in another clear reference to the US. They reiterated that they stand for the peaceful use of space and against the deployment of weapons and an arm race in space.
The opposition, however, appears to raise the stakes for Washington which has been trying to persuade Beijing and Moscow not to see the missile shields as threatening and offers to work and resolve any concerns with them about the true nature of the program, as the White House spokesman has explained.
The declaration also reflected China’s and Russia’s strong opposition to NATO’s expansionism to incorporate ex- Soviet states Georgia and Ukraine, which according to them, the security of nations cannot be ensured at the expense of other countries through expansionism of military and political alliances.
Since the 1990’s, Beijing and Moscow have in recent years joined together in opposing Kosovo’s independence and on Iran’s nuclear crisis.
The two have held joint military exercise in each other’s turf and created a regional security grouping, the Shanghai Corporation Organization to keep the West out of energy rich central Asia.
