Brothers in arms, yet again? Twenty-first century Sino-Russian strategic collaboration in the realm of defence and security. Issue 4 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Watts, John; Ledberg, Sofia; Engelbrekt, Kjell
• Is Part Of: Defence studies. Volume 16:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 427
• Page End: 449
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: China -- Russia -- strategic collaboration -- arms trade -- military exercises -- SCO; Military policy -- Periodicals; International relations -- Periodicals; National security -- Periodicals; Defensive (Military science) -- Periodicals; 355.0305
• DOI: 10.1080/14702436.2016.1238747
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-2436

Abstract

Abstract: 2014–2015 were years of turmoil for strategic relations, with Sino-Russian relations emerging as a particularly interesting set of ties to observe. This article asks whether recurrent Sino-Russian exhortations of friendship are mirrored by their strategic alignment in the defence and security realm, half a century after the end of the Sino-Soviet pact during the communist era. We examine the arms trade between the two countries and with regional partners, but also the recent pattern of bilateral and multilateral military exercises, as a combined test of the security and defence relationship. We are able to show that the image of friendship that both Moscow and Beijing like to promote, while apparent at the UN Security Council and within the BRICS group, remains constrained by rivalry in high-tech segments of the arms industry and by lingering concerns about the prospects of peer interference in their shared regional vicinity.