3 Review(s)

Understanding global developments from afar is often a delicate task. Views masquerade as facts. Rhetoric passes as reality. Exaggeration is par for the course. Narrative is treated as truth. The complete picture is never clearly visible. Making sense of the February 4 Putin-Xi summit in Beijing, from an Indian perspective, confronts all these challenges. Nevertheless, the 5,000- word joint statement issued after the 38th meeting between the two leaders is an excellent aid to deciphering the state of their ties. China stepped up its rhetorical support for Russia, defying the U.S. and other nations who want Beijing to condemn Moscow for the war in Ukraine. "An important takeaway from the success of China-Russia relations is that the two sides rise above the model of military and political alliance in the Cold War era," Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, adding that they "commit themselves to developing a new model of international relations." According to analysts at the Carnegie Moscow Center, Russia is becoming asymmetrically dependent on China in terms of its increased reliance on China as a trade partner, increased usage of yuan held in Russia's Central Bank, and increased dependence on Chinese industrial equipment and technology. This book seeks to rectify this shortcoming and apply some conceptual rigor to the analysis of strategic partnerships in international relations. This is achieved through the employment of a model drawn from the field of organization studies.