Military Cooperation of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China

Since the 1990s, China and Russia have been increasingly strengthening their military cooperation. It includes selling Russian weapons to China and working on joint arms projects, joint exercises, and recently also joint air and sea patrols in the North Pacific. Even the Russian attack on Ukraine did not break the military ties connecting the two countries. One may even get the impression that this event gave a new impulse to tighten military relations, at least in their political dimension, between China and Russia. This rapprochement can be explained by the fact that both countries are strongly involved in building a new, multipolar international order and strive to weaken the international position of the US. In this context, there is even talk of a military alliance between China and Russia.