What will China want to talk about during Vladimir Putin’s state visit?

Published

4 months ago

May 16, 2024

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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to China is part of the great power politics currently being played out between the West and the global south.

In this arena, China’s President Xi Jinping is promoting his multipolar view of the world, a realignment of the world’s geopolitical centre away from the US and Europe, to Asia.

Xi sees China front and centre on the stage, with a coterie of countries to back him up.

China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are at one end of the spectrum, but widen out the view and there is also Brazil, India and South Africa, who all see the world through a lens at odds with the West.

Added to that is the so-called “no-limits” friendship between Russia and China. It has been tested to the limit as Russia continues its war in Ukraine. But there is no sign China has any plan to abandon its neighbour.

So what will China want to talk about?

First, the Russia-Ukraine war. China is under growing pressure from the US and Europe to rein in exports of dual-use items like semiconductors and machinery tools that Russia can use on the battlefield.

But if China is feeling the heat, you wouldn’t know it. Its exports to Russia surged last year. The way Xi Jinping sees it, Russia is another market for China’s export driven economy, and with Western companies banned from doing business with Russia, China has stepped in to take advantage of it.

Why Putin may visit Vietnam next

There is a possibility, Vladimir Putin will visit Vietnam after his summit with Xi Jingping in Beijing, or later this month. It would be Putin’s first state visit to the country since 2017.

Vietnam is one of Russia’s three closest partners in Asia, alongside China and North Korea.

Experts suggest a visit from Putin would signal to the world that he’s committed to a “Turn to the East” policy and allow the Russian leader to show that Western efforts to isolate his government over its invasion of Ukraine have failed.

Maintaining a close connection to Moscow is a priority for the Vietnamese leadership. They have a tricky balancing act trying to juggle ties with both America and China.

Beijing’s encroachments into the South China Sea represents a potential territorial threat to Hanoi. Whilst America is an obvious counterweight to that, the US is also considered a threat to the ruling Communist Party.

Welcoming Putin to Hanoi, a leader the West has sought to cut off, is proof the Vietnam government wants close relationships with as many powerful nations as possible.

Russia is one of its seven so-called “strategic partners” and it would come as no surprise if Putin does touch down in Hanoi. Vietnam could also be expected to seek an arms deal with its historical ally and replenish its ageing Soviet-era military equipment.

China is also resisting pressure from the West to use its leverage to force Mr Putin to wind down the war.

While President Xi doesn’t want to see Russia in the grip of collapse, after all they share a 2,500-mile-long border, a long, grinding war in Ukraine has benefits for China.

It drains European energy and resources, distracts the US and allows China to get on with its territorial claims in Asia and its ambition to dominate international trade in EVs, solar panels and batteries.

In this Sino-Russian relationship, China has the upper hand. It’s receiving cheap raw materials from Russia and paying 30% less for natural gas than Europe did before the war. China is calling the shots.

While Mr Putin and Mr Xi have an enduring friendship, this alignment is a thorn in the side for the West. But there seems little Europe and the US can do about it. Threats aren’t working, sanctioning Chinese banks might.

For Beijing, it’s all about balance. China needs the US and Europe to remain open to its exports. So far, it has been able to have it all. However, it’s becoming increasingly untenable for the West to stand by while China stands with Russia.

A time may yet come when President Xi Jinping is forced to make a choice.

World

Vietnam: Nearly 200 people dead in aftermath of Typhoon Yagi

Published

8 hours ago

September 12, 2024

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Vietnam: Nearly 200 people dead in aftermath of Typhoon Yagi

Almost 200 people have died and more than 125 are missing in Vietnam in the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, according to local media.

Yagi was the strongest typhoon to hit the Southeast Asian country in decades, making landfall on Saturday with winds of up to 92mph (149kph) and causing flash floods and landslides.

Some 197 people have died and 128 are still missing, while more than 800 have been injured, according to Vietnam’s VNExpress newspaper.

Fatalities peaked earlier this week as a flash flood swept away the entire hamlet of Lang Nu in northern Vietnam’s Lao Cai province on Tuesday.

Hundreds of rescue workers mounted a search for survivors but 53 villagers remained missing on Thursday morning, VNExpress reported.

Seven more bodies were found, bringing the total number of deaths there to 42.

The flooding in the capital, Hanoi, has been reportedly the worst in two decades, and has led to widespread evacuations.

Flood waters from the Red River have receded slightly but many areas are still inundated.

People waded through muddy brown water above their knees to make their way along one street, with some still wearing their bicycle and motorcycle helmets after abandoning their vehicles along the way.

Others paddled along the road in small boats as rubbish drifted by, while one man pushed his motorbike toward drier ground in an aluminium craft.

Yagi weakened on Sunday but downpours continued and rivers remain dangerously high.

Floods and landslides have caused most of the deaths, many of which have come in the northwestern Lao Cai province, bordering China, home to the popular trekking destination of Sapa, where Lang Nu is located.

On Monday, a steel bridge collapsed in Phu Tho province over the engorged Red River, sending 10 cars and trucks along with two motorbikes into the water.

A bus carrying 20 people was swept into a flooded stream by a landslide in mountainous Cao Bang province.

Meanwhile in Thailand, at least two people were killed and hundreds stranded after heavy rains swept through two northern provinces, swelling rivers, inundating settlements and triggering mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday.

Experts say storms like Typhoon Yagi are getting stronger due to climate change, as warmer ocean waters provide more energy to fuel them, leading to higher winds and heavier rainfall.

World

Former model and Miss Switzerland finalist Kristina Joksimovic ‘pureed’ in blender by husband – reports

Published

8 hours ago

September 12, 2024

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Former model and Miss Switzerland finalist Kristina Joksimovic 'pureed' in blender by husband - reports

A former model who was a finalist in the Miss Switzerland contest was allegedly murdered and “pureed” in a blender by her husband, officials in Switzerland are reported to have said.

Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found dead in her home in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland, in February this year.

According to local news outlet BZ Basel, a man named Thomas, 41, had an appeal for release from custody denied by the Federal Court in Lausanne on Wednesday after he reportedly confessed to killing his wife, with whom he had two children.

The outlet said he had admitted to the killing during a crime reconstruction in March, and claimed it was in self-defence after she attacked him with a knife.

BZ Basel said the ruling from the court held Ms Joksimovic was strangled to death. An autopsy report included in the ruling said Ms Joksimovic’s body was then dismembered in a laundry room with a jigsaw, knife and garden shears.

It added body parts were then chopped up with a hand blender, “pureed” and dissolved in a chemical solution.

BZ Basel also said Thomas was arrested the day after Ms Joksimovic’s body was found, and initially told investigators he had found her dead and dismembered her body in their laundry room in panic.

Thomas, who is a Swiss national, was reportedly arrested a day after her remains were found by a “third party”, according to German language outlet Blick.

According to local outlet 20 Minuten, Ms Joksimovic was crowned Miss Northwest Switzerland pageant and in 2007 was a finalist for Miss Switzerland.

She later ran her own business as a catwalk coach, and mentored model Dominique Rinderknecht for the Miss Universe pageant in 2013.

World

UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says six workers killed in two airstrikes in Gaza

Published

8 hours ago

September 12, 2024

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UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA says six workers killed in two airstrikes in Gaza

Six aid workers have been killed in Gaza after two airstrikes in Nuseirat, according to reports.

In a post on X, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine in the Near East (UNRWA) said: “Six colleagues killed today when two airstrikes hit a school and its surroundings in the middle areas.

“This is the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident.

“Among those killed was the manager of the UNRWA shelter and other team members providing assistance to displaced people.

“Sincere condolences to their families and loved ones. This school has been hit five times since the war began.

“It is home to around 12,000 displaced people, mainly women and children. No one is safe in Gaza No one is spared.

“Schools and other civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times, they are not a target.

“We call on all parties to the conflict to never use schools or the areas around them for military or fighting purposes.”

Palestine’s health minister on Wednesday said at least 41,084 Palestinians have been killed during the war and 95,029 have been wounded.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their October 7 attack on Israel that sparked the war.

They abducted another 250 and are still holding about 100, with a third believed to be dead.

There have been 340 Israeli soldiers killed since the ground operation began in Gaza in late October, at least 50 of whom have been killed in accidents within Gaza – not as a result of combat with Palestinian militants, according to the military.