The leaders of most of the world’s nations have converged in Beijing this week for a special forum commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an infrastructure megaproject in more than 150 countries. Russia sent a large delegation headed by President Vladimir Putin.
Author, journalist, and geopolitical analyst KJ Noh told Sputnik that Putin’s meeting with Xi in Beijing was “tremendously important” and “shows that the multi-polar alignment is very, very solid.”
“The two key leaders, both Russia and China, which are also being certainly strongly threatened by the imperial Western ruling elite - they have each other's backs,” he said.
“But I want to point out the incredible contrast that, you know, Biden goes to Israel and he essentially endorses the violence; Putin goes to China and he's endorsing development and constructive engagement. And, you know, I think it's such a striking contrast that in Beijing, through the Belt and Road gathering, they're celebrating development, mutual support, and peace, and the United States is once again putting its hand on the scale and endorsing, or at least tacitly endorsing, more violence. I think it simply boils down to the fact that China and the global South are building things. The US is bombing them, or at least giving the thumbs up to do so. I think that's such an extraordinary contrast. China is giving water and electricity to the world and the US and its allies are cutting it off right now as we speak. You know, peace and de-escalation versus war and destruction.”
Noh said that the BRI and the new projects discussed at the Beijing forum would have repercussions in other parts of the globe, especially in Europe, where most nations have joined in a US-led boycott of Russian energy exports in spite of their own economic dependence on those products.
“What it's going to do is it's going to accelerate the deindustrialization of the EU, which was rapidly accelerated by the destruction of Nord Stream, and it's going to accelerate the further development of China and its allies,” Noh said of Russia finding new customers. “I mean, remember, Europe and especially Germany got its industrialized boost from cheap energy. If it no longer has that, and that is being directed to China, then you can be sure that China will start to move forward ‘on steroids’ as far as its further industrial and technological development is concerned.”
“And all of this is part of, you know, that China is the boat that will be lifting up all the other boats, and currently the Belt and Road is shifting and shifting into high gear. That is, it's not simply an infrastructural transportation network, but they're talking about a digital belt and road, and green and sustainable development, scientific and technological innovation, you know, just educational and cultural development. All of these things once again point to the ways in which the center of economic and political and cultural gravity is shifting to the Global South, led by China and Russia,” Noh said.
The analyst noted that Putin personally leading the delegation to Beijing, his first trip outside the former Soviet Union region since the beginning of the conflict with Ukraine in February 2022, to meet personally with Chinese President Xi Jinping was a demonstration of the importance of the China-Russia relationship, which the Chinese foreign ministry described in December 2021 as having “no limit, no forbidden zone, and no ceiling.”
“It's an endorsement and it's a vote of confidence, it's showing how close that relationship is,” Noh said.
“I mean, just a quick parenthetical note: Putin has not been traveling more, has been restricted in his travels because of that absurd allegation of war crimes that had nothing to do - it was essentially helping children get to safety. That was used as pressure to delegitimize and to constrain President Putin from traveling. But traveling to China, he knows he's in good hands. He knows that he is among allies. And from his standpoint, it is a strong endorsement of his confidence, his trust and his support of the Belt and Road and all the other institutions that are building out a multipolar world for the better.”
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