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Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met four times over the course of 2015, a year in which both countries marked the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with grand parades. Although the year was marked by a fall in bilateral trade between Russia and China, the countries managed to align their geo-political and strategic interests in multilateral forums, such as BRICS, G20, APEC and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
A major success for the countries in 2015 was the launching of two multilateral banks that will eventually compete with the Bretton Woods institutions: The New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The NDB was started by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to finance infrastructure and development projects in member countries and emerging economies. It is headquartered in Shanghai and aims at reducing the dependence of members on the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The AIIB, a Chinese initiative where the biggest stakeholders are China, India and Russia, is seen as a regional alternative to the Bretton Woods institutions, which are still dominated by the West. “We expect that the bank will become an effective tool for strengthening transcontinental links and will contribute to Eurasian integration,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement ahead of the launch of the bank earlier this year.
“When 58 member nations bucked Washington’s warnings and joined the bank this year, including allies of the United States and G7 stalwarts such as France, Germany, South Korea, and the United Kingdom, China realized that it had a potential vanguard for an alternative economic world order,” strategic analyst Rebecca Liao wrote in Foreign Affairs.
Russia and China agreed to boost cooperation within the G20 to help reform the economic world order.
China took over the G20 presidency from Turkey and will host the 2016 summit.
“We are willing to strengthen communication and cooperation with Russia in the course of hosting the G20 summit,” Xi told Putin at a meeting on the sidelines of the 2015 G20 summit in Turkey in November 2015.
Xi added that China aimed to build an “innovative, invigorated, interconnected and inclusive” world economy along with all the other members of G20.
During the meeting in Turkey, Putin and Xi also spoke of aligning China’s Silk Road Economic Belt with the Eurasian Economic Union.
“Beijing’s presidency of G20 is a great opportunity for China and Russia to push the agenda of giving more decision-making power to developing nations within the IMF and World Bank, even as they develop alternate institutions,” says Doris Tung, a strategic analyst based in Hong Kong.
In July 2015, Russia hosted the BRICS and the SCO summits in Ufa. One of the major geo-political developments at the SCO summit was the initiation of measures for the formal acceptance of India and Pakistan into the grouping as full members.
“The addition of India and Pakistan into the SCO was a huge achievement for Sino-Russian multilateral foreign policy,” says Tung. “It is the first step towards a greater Eurasian alliance that will be an effective counterweight to the U.S. and its allies,” she adds.
Indian diplomats and strategic analysts are more cautious about the role of the SCO. “The idea of a grand SCO Eurasian security alliance will only work when some mechanism for permanent peace can be established between India and Pakistan,” a senior Indian diplomat told RBTH on the condition of anonymity.
Although several challenges lie ahead, analysts largely agree that Sino-Russian multilateral financial and security initiatives will help bring about a multipolar world in the long run.
