Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is making two very telling trips this week.
In China today ostensibly for a meeting of countries bordering Afghanistan, Lavrov took the chance to discuss the war in Ukraine with his local counterpart.
But Beijing is being very low key about the visit. That’s as it faces international criticism for its stance of not condemning Russia for the war as well as threats of economic penalties should it help Russia skirt international sanctions.
Key reading:
- China Moves to Comply With Sanctions, Easing Some U.S. Concerns
- Russian Foreign Minister Lands in China on First Visit Since War
- India’s Dependence on Russian Weapons Tethers Modi to Putin
- Russia Offers SWIFT Alternative to India for Ruble Payments
- China Envoy Says Xi-Putin Friendship Actually Does Have a Limit
China’s Foreign Ministry, in its daily briefing today, limited itself to a few generic comments on overall ties with Russia. Chinese companies have, to all accounts, been trying to work out how to comply with sanctions even as Beijing hasn’t officially joined the economic squeeze on Moscow.
The fear is that China and Russia, with much in common (although Beijing views Moscow as the junior partner), act ever more as a bloc.
But while China avoids public criticism of Vladimir Putin for his war and is averse to mechanisms that damage its own economic progress, President Xi Jinping is probably loathe to put himself in the middle of Putin’s political fights with the U.S. and Europe.
Tomorrow Lavrov heads to India, a country that has similarly failed to condemn Russia for the invasion and which continues to trade with it, especially in oil and weapons. New Delhi is in fact considering a proposal from Moscow to use a system developed by the Russian central bank for bilateral payments, bypassing SWIFT — the Belgium-based cross-border payment system operator — from which it has largely been cut off.
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