Vladimir Putin has an opportunity to meet with the leaders of Russua-friendly countries at One Belt One Road forum in China amid Beijing's period of high tensions in the relationship with Washington.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is visiting China on October 17-18. Representatives of Asian, Latin American and African states are expected to arrive as well to mark the tenth anniversary of China's One Belt, One Road initiative. In a nutshell, it goes about the forum of the Global South that has not joined the sanctions against Russia, but has been developing cooperation with it instead.
One Belt One Road is a plan to build global infrastructure and energy networks that Chinese President Xi Jinping launched a decade ago to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and sea routes. China signed documents on cooperation with more than 150 countries and more than 30 international organisations.
The China-Laos railway, the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway in Indonesia, the Hungary-Serbia railway, the port of Piraeus (Greece) and other projects have either been implemented or are being implemented.
Beijing said this week that the signed contracts totalled more than $2 trillion. The balance in loan accounts with the Export-Import Bank of China (Exim Bank), a key lender to the initiative, now stands at 2.2 trillion yuan ($307.4 billion).
Russia and China are working to conclude new economic agreements during Putin's planned visit to Beijing, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
Putin and Xi Jinping also plan to discuss political issues, such as opposition to USA's supremacy as Washington is trying to strengthen its influence in Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, South Korea, and Japan. This is evidenced by what Biden's adviser Jake Sullivan said:
"We firmly reject the notion that the United States of America cannot at once support the freedom-loving people of Ukraine and support the state of Israel. We believe we have the resources tools and capacities to be able to effectively do that," Jake Sullivan said at a White House briefing on Oct. 10.
However, history is not following this scenario. This is where one needs to push harder in terms of economic sovereignty, and the Chinese forum comes in handy at this point. This ambition is not groundless. China's share in world economy will increase to 19.7 percent by 2028, whereas the share of the United States is expected to decrease to 14.5 percent, Putin said at a plenary session of the Russian Energy Week.
According to experts' estimates, the contribution of five largest Asian economies — China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam — in world economy already exceeds the total share of the United States and all EU countries combined.
"In the next decade, the gap will only be increasing, there is no doubt about it,” Putin said.
"China is building certain routes through Central Asian states. We are interested in supporting this. We are building relevant roads and railways, and we discuss all that in our negotiations,” Putin said.
Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are also expected to attend the forum. They would like to discuss their issues, such as the supplies of Russian energy resources and the Budapest-Belgrade railway that China is funding.
Sinologist Nikolai Vavilov believes that Putin's visit to China will have a decisive influence on China's readiness to confront the United States. There is a strong pro-American elite in China that "openly undermines Russian-Chinese interaction," he wrote on Telegram.
However, neither Xi Jinping nor Putin intend to curtail their programs for building an alternative world.
Nikolai Vavilov believes that there is a proxy war going between China and the United States. It broke out against the backdrop of Beijing's successes in the Middle East after Xi Jinping resolved relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and then wanted to do the same with regard to Israel and Palestine. In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled the invitation to visit China, whereas in August the United States announced a route from India through Saudi Arabia and Israel to Europe. In other words, the Americans challenged the Belt and Road.
"China is literally snatching up US colonies, and the US is going on the offensive wherever this is happening," the expert wrote.
Of course, Xi will be looking for allies, including on the Taiwan issue, and Russia has experience in such a war.