View from Moscow: China's Westward March

China and Russia are solidifying their bilateral relationship as the former looks westward and the latter turns to its east borders. In this podcast with Paul Haenle, Dmitri Trenin discusses the conditions that are leading to stronger China-Russian ties, including China’s growing influence in Eurasia and Russia’s shifting foreign policy orientation. Trenin believes that China and Russia are forming an entente, a relationship that is more than a partnership but less than an alliance. He argues that China has become a larger factor in Russia’s foreign policy out of necessity, given Russian isolation after the Ukraine crisis. At the same time, Trenin insists that Russian leaders realize that China cannot take the place of Russia’s relations with the West, and he notes that they are seeking to avoid allowing China too much influence over Moscow despite Beijing's more favorable geopolitical positioning.