WATCH : Global Stage @ the UN: Reimagining Tomorrow: Breakthroughs in Data and AI
Scroll to the top

{{ subpage.title }}

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends a joint statement with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Reuters

​China’s delicate dance on Ukraine

Over 18 months of war, President Xi Jinping’s pledge of “friendship without limits” with Russia has repeatedly been tested. China blames the West for Russia’s invasion and continues to buy Russia’s oil at discount prices, but it has also refused to endorse Russian claims on Ukrainian land and offers itself as a neutral player that wants peace.

Read moreShow less

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Reuters

The Saudis want to be peacemakers in Ukraine

The Ukraine diplomatic sweepstakes continue with representatives from more than 40 countries set to gather this weekend in the Saudi city of Jeddah to try and forge a path towards peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv will attend the conference, but Russia wasn’t invited – though the Kremlin says it’ll watch the shindig closely.

This event comes after a similar summit was held in Copenhagen in June. So how is this one different?

First, after balking at the Danes’ invite last time, China has now agreed to attend. That’s a big win for Ukraine, which knows that Beijing has Putin’s ear. It’s also a win for the Saudis, who want the conference to be viewed by the West and Russia alike as a serious diplomatic forum.

Read moreShow less
Why Russia is fighting in Ukraine without any allies
Why Russia is fighting in Ukraine without any allies | GZERO World

Why Russia is fighting in Ukraine without any allies

When it comes to the war in Ukraine, Russia stands alone.

From the Russian perspective, the Ukraine invasion is a battle for the survival of the country against NATO and the collective West, who, the Russia says, wants to destroy Russia and eliminate its influence around the world. But given the fact that virtually no allies have joined Russia in a fight it views as perfectly legitimate, does the Kremlin need a sense of reality and be more modest about what it thinks it can accomplish in the region?

Read moreShow less

Ukrainian service members fire a mortar towards Russian troops outside the frontline town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk region, Ukraine March 6, 2023.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko via REUTERS

What We’re Watching: Battle for Bakhmut, Xi’s diplomatic muscle, AUKUS sub deal

The Bakhmut killing field

Bakhmut, home to about 75,000 people before the war, has become an urban killing field. Western intelligence agencies say up to 30,000 Russians have died or been seriously injured in the fight to take this town. Ukrainian casualties, harder to estimate, are also running high.

Russians appear to be fighting mainly to achieve some victory following months of setbacks followed by stalemate. They also hope the eventual capture of this town can boost their chances of advancing on larger cities in other parts of Donetsk province, though some analysts say they won’t have the manpower or firepower to advance beyond Bakhmut anytime soon. Adding to Russia’s complications, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War argues that the country’s defense ministry has likely pushed large numbers of Wagner Group mercenaries to the deadliest sites of fighting in Bakhmut to reduce the Kremlin influence of Wagner chief and frequent critic of the Russian military Yevgeny Prigozhin by thinning out his force.

Though badly outnumbered, Ukrainian forces have been slow to surrender Bakhmut because they want to inflict as much damage as possible on Russian forces ahead of an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks. For now, the killing continues.

Read moreShow less
China-US tensions over COVID origins & Russia's war
China & the origins of COVID-19 | Quick Take | GZERO Media

China-US tensions over COVID origins & Russia's war

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi everybody, Ian Bremmer here. Happy Monday to you. Lots going on, but I want to talk about all things China right now, there is so much at stake and at play. A few different points. First of all, over the weekend you saw that the Wall Street Journal had a report that the Department of Energy has come out, and they have a lot of expertise on this issue, that says that they believe that COVID initially originated from this lab, from this Institute of Virology in Wuhan. They now join along with the FBI in having that view. They've got low confidence in the view. The FBI has moderate confidence. That means the US government really doesn't know. We've had the National Intelligence Council and the three other intelligence agencies saying that they believe it actually came from a market, or it came from, sort of in a sense, natural environment. And the CIA says they still don't have a view.
Read moreShow less

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Reuters

What’s in China's Ukraine peace plan?

As the world marked one year of war in Ukraine on Friday, China's President Xi Jinping – positioning himself as mediator-in-chief – presented a peace plan for the war-torn country. Beijing, maintaining its self-described neutral status, released a 12-point document calling for both Russia and Ukraine to end hostilities and move towards the negotiating table in hopes of “reach[ing] a comprehensive ceasefire.” To date, Beijing’s support of Russia has mostly been rhetorical and symbolic.

Read moreShow less

Photo composite of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping

Luisa Vieira

What We’re Watching: China’s budding diplomacy, Biden’s border control, Russia’s big plans

What’s next for Russia & China?

Russia and China broadcast their friendship to the world on Wednesday as the West freaked out about the possibility of Beijing turning to arm Moscow’s troops in Ukraine. After meeting Chinese top diplomat Wang Yi in the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin said that strong Russia-China ties are “important for stabilizing the international situation.” (A tad rich coming from the guy who upended geopolitics by invading Ukraine a year ago.) Putin also confirmed that Xi Jinping would visit Moscow for a summit in the coming months. Wang, for his part, clarified that while their famous partnership “without limits” is not directed against any other nation, it certainly should not be subject to external pressure. He said both countries support “multipolarity and democratization of international relations” – in other words, not a US-led liberal international order. Still, no matter what Western governments say, the Chinese are not so willing to break ties with the US and its allies, mainly because Beijing's trade relations are too important. Meanwhile, we wonder whether the current status of the Russia-China relationship — friends with benefits but complicated — will blossom into a marriage (of convenience) or end in a bad breakup. What we know for sure is that China is getting more involved in the Ukraine conflict generally. Learn more here.

Read moreShow less
China to shake up Russia-Ukraine war
Putin Pulling Out of START Can Further Break US-Russia Relationship | World In :60 | GZERO Media

China to shake up Russia-Ukraine war

Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.

How big of a deal is Russia pulling out of New START?

Well, this is of course is the nuclear agreement that the Americans and others have already been accusing the Russians not of being in compliance with. The nature, of course, of the US-Russia relationship right now is completely broken. There's no high level engagement or diplomacy. It is notable that Putin said in his annual State of the Union speech, the one that he essentially canceled last year, that he is suspending Russian participation in START, but not withdrawing. I don't think it's a nothingburger. I think it matters because generally nuclear temperatures have been going up over the past months, but this is not a particularly large issue.

Is China's potential support of Russia in Ukraine a "red line" for the West?

Yes, this is a much bigger issue. We are talking about a peace deal that the Chinese are saying that they're going to announce in short order. President Xi planning a big speech on February 24th, which is the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion. That's unprecedented for China to suddenly be taking a leadership role, a public leadership role, on an issue that is not of primary national security concern to the Chinese self.

Read moreShow less

Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Latest