Russia, China pledge new military ties, challenge US

Russia and China have pledged to strengthen their bilateral military and political ties as part of a strategic cooperation that challenges US interests, especially to Washington's stance on Middle East allies Syria and Iran, reports Newsweek.

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu met Tuesday with Air Force General Xu Qiliang, deputy vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and other regional military officials as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in the eastern city of Qingdao. As increasingly powerful Russia and China built up their clout on the world stage, they sought a more united front against the US, which frequently challenged their rise.

"Time changes everything," Shoigu said, according to the Russian Defence Ministry. "But, fortunately, it does not change our relations both personally between us and between our states, and the very close, friendly relations of the heads of our states serve as a guarantee of this."

Shoigu praised "the privileged character of intergovernmental ties" evidenced by numerous meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both of whom secured enough national support to extend their terms last month. He said the two nations were continuing "their strategic course towards further boosting friendly and trustworthy ties in the defense sphere," calling this relationship "an important factor for maintaining global and regional security."

"In contemporary global politics, our countries are in similar positions," he told Xu.

Shoigu also praised China's position on Syria, where Syrian President Bashar al-Assad continued to battle the remnants of an uprising by rebel and jihadi groups. The 2011 rebellion was supported and sponsored by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states, but was deeply opposed by Assad allies Russia and Iran. When the West sought to condemn the Syrian government's crackdown at the United Nations Security Council in the early years of the conflict, China joined Russia in vetoing resolutions targeting Assad.

As fundamentalist organizations such as the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) began to dominate the fight, the focus switched to defeating the jihadi forces and both the U.S. and Russia staged military interventions. ISIS has since lost at least 90 percent of its territory in both Iraq and Syria and the rivalry between the U.S. and Russia has again risen to the forefront of the issue.