Partners and rivals
As the Russian prime minister visits China, we ask which of these two regional powers has the upper hand.
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, is in China for his first foreign trip since announcing his intention to run for president in the 2012 elections.
Putin is meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, and Hu Jintao, China’s president, during the two-day visit with trade and energy topping the agenda.
Last year, Russia became China’s biggest trading partner, with imports and exports worth more than $55bn.
As Russia’s prime minister returns to the global stage, what will this mean for relations with China, and who has the upper hand between these two regional powers? What is it that each nation is looking to get from the other? Will Russia’s significance to China continue to diminish in the coming years, and are Beijing and Moscow likely to view each other as the ultimate strategic threat in the long term?
Inside Story, with presenter Hazem Sika, discusses with Pavel Felgenhauer, a political analyst and columnist at the newspaper Novaya Gazeta; Joseph Cheng, a professor of international politics at City University Hong Kong; and Justin Logan, the director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.