Rallying 'round Russia

Belarus is. But China is not.

Russian rhetoric concerning the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation often plays on western fears. Moscow is wont to cast it as a vehicle for Eurasian anti-Americanism; the worry of some in Washington, London and Brussels, is of a nascent hostile military alliance to challenge NATO. The attitude of China towards its erstwhile communist neighbour continues to belie both images, however.

Rather than back Russia over the Georgian war and its subsequent recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, China has instead expressed its concern. It has too many of its own separatist headaches - nationalists in Taiwan, Buddhists in Tibet and Muslims in Xinjiang - to indulge Russia's meddling with territorial sovereignty. The economic ties that bind it to the wider world are much more complex than those of Russia (which remains little more than an exporter of metals and energy), leading it to place a much higher premium on relations with the rich western markets on which its growth to date has relied. Suspicious of each other even when communism was on the march across the world, there remains little love lost between the two paragons of authoritarian development. Russia and China are unlikely to jump into bed together unless the open world locks them in the boudoir.

Which means that as talk of a new Cold War returns, we should resist proposals for an 'alliance of democracies' to contain a resurgent Russia. Pursuing one would needlessly drive China into its arms, and for now China seems quite content in the rules-based international order to which it has signed up with membership of the WTO. Military alliances and open values undoubtedly have a role in countering unwanted external aggression, whether in the Caucasus or anywhere else, but they should not be championed to the extent of hamstringing attempts to bring the rest of the world on board too. The world needs China to be responsible stakeholder, and while it has thus far disappointed in Sudan and on global warming, it has at least shown itself willing to stand up to Russia. Its a start.