#8
Asia Times
May 30, 2002
Beijing eyes closer partnership with post-Soviet states
By Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW - On the eve of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit and a pan-Asian summit on confidence-building next week, Beijing has seemingly put in motion a flurry of diplomatic activities throughout the post-Soviet states. China appears to be working toward boosting exchanges with its former Soviet counterparts, notably in security and military areas.

Both summits are to be held in former Soviet republics. Leaders of some 30 Asian nations are due to gather at the first summit of the CICA, an acronym for the "Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia", to be held in Almaty on Tuesday and Wednesday. Not surprisingly, the agenda will include measures to combat international terrorism.

The SCO, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well as China and Russia, is due to hold its summit on June 7 in St Petersburg. The summit is expected to approve the SCO's 30-page-long charter, a joint declaration and an agreement for an anti-terrorist center in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Against the backdrop of the upcoming SCO summit's anti-terrorist agenda, it's no big wonder, then, that China dispatched a high-ranking security mission to travel throughout some post-Soviet states - most notably, Public Security Minister Jia Chunwang, who met Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov on Wednesday in Moscow. They reportedly discussed a joint crusade against terrorism and transnational crime such as the drug trade and illegal migration, the Russian Information Agency (RIA) reported. Last November Gryzlov and Jia signed a formal bilateral cooperation accord between the two security agencies.

Central Asia also appears to be on the list of China's security priorities. On Monday, Jia Chunwang traveled to Tajikistan to meet President Emomali Rakhmonov and discuss the mutual fight against terrorism, separatism and the drug trade. Tajik Interior Minister Humidin Sharipov was quoted by RIA as saying that China agreed to grant Tajik law-enforcement agencies "special assistance", which would not, however, include arms supplies.

Moreover, on Thursday Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov started a trip to China. According to a statement issued by his ministry, Ivanov is due to meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to brief them on the strategic arms reduction treaty that Russia signed with the United States last week. The Russian minister is also to confirm Moscow's readiness "to develop military and political cooperation" with China.

Beijing is also mulling the development of military ties with some non-SCO post-Soviet states. Belarus intends to develop a military cooperation with China, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko told visiting Fu Quanyou, chief of the general staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), on Tuesday. Typically, buyers of Russian-made military hardware tend to go to other former Soviet states to seek better deals in procuring spare parts. Belarus now supplies China with spare parts for Sukhoi-27 jet fighters and trains Chinese officers at its military academies.

Furthermore, Lukashenko, who has become notorious for his anti-Western stance, made some noteworthy remarks. "Belarus and China have no differences whatsoever in regard to international relations," Lukashenko was quoted by RIA as saying. After Russia's agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization this week, it might be worth mentioning that the Belarussian president has been critical of NATO's eastward expansion, while Beijing has tended to support this point of view. Therefore, Lukashenko's remarks could indicate that China might try playing differences between Belarus and Russia, the two nations that technically still form a "union state".

Despite Beijing's proactive diplomacy, some potentially divisive issues remain. The influx of Chinese migrant workers has become a topical issue in some Central Asian states as well as in Russia's Siberia, underpopulated but rich in natural resources. According to Russia's Interior Ministry, every year more than 500,000 Chinese "tourists" come to Russia, but not all of them return to China, staying on illegally.

Russian officials and politicians have long voiced concern over the alleged influx of illegal aliens from "far abroad", mainly China. There are more than a million Chinese illegal migrants in Russia, according to Russia's Interior Ministry. Last April, Russia and China signed a consular agreement aimed at regulating migration.

The Russian government has also approved the concept of a program for developing resource-rich Siberia through 2020, presumably in order to dismiss fears of alleged "Chinese quiet colonization". The program provides for the modernization of the Siberian economy, the development of its infrastructure and the improvement of its demographical situation.

Although the issue of illegal migration has become a matter for formal discussions between Russia's Interior Ministry and China's Public Security Ministry, any meaningful solution is understood to be some time off. In the meantime, China also aims to boost trade ties with its SCO counterparts, notably on a multilateral basis. On Tuesday, China held a meeting of SCO foreign trade ministers in Beijing. According to RIA, Foreign Trade Minister Shi Guangsheng told the gathering that China would support the respective World Trade Organization bids of its SCO counterparts.

After Russia's recent important agreements with the US, NATO and the European Union, triangular relations among Russia, China and the United States are arguably set for undergoing some important changes from what it was in the 1990s. Notably, Russia is seemingly abandoning the foreign-policy concept of a "multipolar world", which once used to be an important mantra in joint rhetoric with China. However, it is probably too early to say that the traditional tripartite game of playing on contradictions between the parties is becoming a thing of the past.

BACK TO THE TOP    #208 CONTENTS    NEXT SECTION