China-Russia closer ties in small countries' interest

Yuba Nath Lamsal

The international balance of power has changed and is changing constantly. The international of the World War II no longer existed soon after the war was over. It gave rise to Cold War dominated by two rival superpowers. The bi-polar world also came to an end with the collapse of Soviet Union that marked formal end of the Cold War. In the post Cold War era, the United States of America is the only superpower making the world as a unipolar one. This uni-polar world, too, is not going to remain for a long time. The new world order has already started taking its shape.

There had been a unique equation of power during the Cold War era, which might not have been natural. Soon after the World War II, ideology was the sole basis of international relations and alliance among states. There was a capitalist bloc under the leadership of the United States and the Soviet Union was the leader of world\'s socialist camp. Some of the countries of the Third World that chose not to be aligned with any of the two power blocs remained neutral under the banner of Non-Aligned Movement.

The Soviet Union, which installed socialist regime through October Revolution led by V. I. Lenin. After the World War II, several socialist and communist countries emerged in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, thanks in part to people\'s homegrown revolution and in part material and moral support from the international socialist community mainly the Soviet Union. When World War II was in its peak, New People\'s Revolution was underway in China under the banner of Communist Party of China which was led by Mao Zedong. The Chinese Revolution succeeded in establishing People\'s Republic of China in 1949. Although the determination and struggle of the revolutionary Chinese people was the principal catalyst factor for the success of China\'s revolution, international support mainly from Soviet Union had also played vital role. Even after the success of the Chinese Revolution, Soviet Union\'s support and assistance in the modernization and development of China was crucial.

However, crack appeared in the socialist bloc with Soviet Union and China getting involved in mud-slinging against one another. But the alliance among the capitalist bloc was intact and it was getting stronger whereas the unity among the socialist countries was being fragmented. The crack in the socialist bloc began soon after Nikita Khrushchev\'s rise to power in Soviet Union. Soon after coming to power, Khrushchev not only denounced Joseph Stalin but also proposed a new model of communism/socialism that irked and alienated China that was heading towards building socialism based on the classical Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. With China refusing to toe ideological and political line of Soviet Union under Khrushchev, the earlier camaraderie and bonhomie soon turned into rivalry and animosity. Beijing then kept itself away from the Soviet-led socialist bloc with China\'s accusation that Soviet Union turned into a social imperialist path.

The rift between Soviet Union and China marked a turning point in the change of international balance of power. The animosity between China and Soviet Union grew so bitter that they once fought proxy war in Vietnam. Although China kept itself away from the bitter rivalry between the two super powers, Beijing felt threatened more by Soviet Union\'s aggressive posture in East Asia as countries in the region like Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and even Mongolia went into the Soviet fold. At the same time, Soviet Union intervened in Afghanistan and propped up its puppet regime in Kabul. At the same time, Soviet Union and India signed a long-term strategic and military cooperation agreement. The Western capitalist bloc too was flexing its military and political muscle in Asia and propping up regimes in different countries to be organized against Soviet adventure and aggression. The growing Soviet adventure in Asia also gave rise to increased US military presence especially in Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and South China Sea in the East Asia and Pakistan and Indian Ocean in South Asia. The formation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should be viewed against this background. To Beijing Soviet intervention was more dangerous not only to China but also to security of entire Asian continent. China, thus, stood firmly against Soviet aggression in the region. China\'s policy to oppose Soviet aggression came not only from its security point of view but also because of its stated foreign policy to oppose any kind of foreign intervention in other country that was based on five principles of peaceful co-existence. Beijing\'s opposition was dubbed as a support to capitalist bloc by the Soviet Union and its lackeys. China did not support the United States but stood for the principle and cause of the small and weaker countries. China\'s support brought the balance of power in Asia into the favour of the Unites States. Its result was more visible in Afghanistan. Soviet Union was forced to withdraw its troops and Afghanistan was liberated. Soviet adventure met similar fate in other countries in Asia.

Since then a sea change has taken place in the world. Soviet Union was disintegrated with Russia remaining the dominating power giving rise to US-led unipolar world. New powers are emerging and newer alliances are being developed in the world. China has come up as an economic superpower with already becoming world\'s second largest economy and speculations are that it would even surpass the United States in a few years. China\'s role and clout in the international arena is growing and Beijing is an international power that no country can afford to ignore.

The uni-polar world is slowly turning into multi-polar ones with some regional powers emerging fast like China in Asia, Russia in Europe, South Africa in Africa and Brazil in South America. There is no single dynamic that has brought the change in the international balance of power. The contributing factors are manifold, which have compelled the international powers to build bilateral and multi-later alliances.

Asia is becoming the center of international power. The world is watching closely the developments in Asia and countries are readjusting their policy accordingly. The Unites States has seen simmering threat to its global domination from China\'s rise. Washington\'s policy is to check China\'s emergence, for which it has readjusted its policy and realigned relations with several countries in Asia. The United States has already had strong presence in East Asia but its position is shaky in South Asia. Soon after Washington washed its hand and withdrew from South Asia after Soviet troops were pulled out from Afghanistan, US influence and presence started slowly diminishing. The United States has committed three blunders in its South Asia policy. The complete washing off hands from South Asia after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan was first mistake. The second one is the decision to abruptly abandon Pakistan and third mistake is to enter into strategic partnership with India. Pakistan felt paranoid as Washington behaved as fair weather friend while it started hobnobbing with Islamabad\'s arch foe India. China had already felt threatened by strong US military presence in East Asia, South China Sea and Indian Ocean. US-India military partnership made Beijing further susceptible as China was fully encircled by the United States virtually from all sides. The result is obvious: China started looking for an alternative alliance to counter the United States and its newly forged alliance with several Asian countries including India. Russia, too, was not happy with NATO\'s eastward expansion and US inroad into some Central Asian countries. This is a major contributing factor for China-Russia strategic partnership.

With United States and India getting closer and forging security and strategic partnership, China and Russia have tied strategic knot even more tightly. It is said that there is no neither permanent friend nor permanent foes in diplomacy but only permanent interest. The US-India alliance is a marriage of convenience as both Washington and New Delhi have a common mission is to weaken China and check its rise, while China-Russia partnership is natural.

China and Russia have their common objective to counter US domination in the world. The recent developments in Arab world and North Africa and US-led NATO\'s role made China and Russia more susceptible and they felt necessity of a common and collective approach in the international forum. This was the prime motive and objective of China-Russia strategic partnership, to which Chinese President Hu Jintao described as a "comprehensive strategic relationship." In future, Pakistan may formally join this alliance making it a trilateral strategic partnership for their collective security. This may ultimately pave the way for the formation of, as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has visualized, greater Eurasian Union an economic counter weight to EU and military counter weight to NATO. This kind of union would not only challenge the US hegemony in the world but also serve as a bridge between Asia and Europe.

Russia is the world\'s largest energy producer and China is the world\'s top energy consumer. Their alliance and meaningful cooperation would definitely change the world order and international balance of power. The China-Russia partnership will definitely have positive impact in our region. Russia and China will act as decisive geopolitical giants, which would create perfect balance of power not only in South Asia but in Asia as a whole as well as in the world. With the new alliance and better balance of power, small and weaker countries like Nepal may not feel defenseless and the new world order and balance of power would be in the interest of the developing countries in the world.