Russia's President Putin visits China's President Xi Jinping

in today's Spotlight two of America's biggest geopolitical foes praising their quote Everlasting friendship Russian President Vladimir Putin making a state visit to Beijing this week meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping with the two pledging a new era of partnership and taking an adversarial tone towards the United States and the West as a whole let's bring back my panel Mike Christina and John and joining us now is ABC News National Security and defense analyst Mick moay so Mick we know that China is helping to stabilize Russia's economy as they face many many sanctions from the west and the White House again accusing Chinese companies for helping Putin wage this war against Ukraine so what's your takeaway from this Summit and just how consequential China is as this war rages on so Selena very consequential and you already already hit on the main reason they are basically supplying the war machine for Russia to uh carry out its war against Ukraine but this summ is very significant these two individuals know each other very well uh they've met over 40 times if that gives you some indication and they are talking about everything from defense to economics to energy and of course energy plays a part in defense and economics so this is very significant and troubling there's a reason why these two countries are first and second uh when it comes to our strategic competitors also known as adversaries and our national security strategy and they're just trying to basically uh build up their Coalition uh because they view us uh as their most togic adversary and it should be something we pay a lot of attention to and John is Russia clearly the Junior partner in this relationship just talk to us about how this interde interdependence helps Beijing here oh yeah from an economic standpoint there's there's no parody whatsoever uh China is simply using Russia because they got Russia in a spot where Russia can't need somebody to help them and it's China is the only one willing to help but China in return is getting well below Market uh prices for oil and gas which they need badly so from a from an economic standpoint Russia is getting fleeced but from a strategic uh standpoint from a from a threat standpoint it UPS the anti against the United States so he's absolutely correct when he says that so uh but by and large from an economic standpoint China is really just using a wounded animal in Russia right now Mike I just want to get your thoughts bouncing off of that I mean clearly these two countries are aligned in their opposition to this us-led world order do you see this as more of than a relationship of convenience here it's a relationship of convenience also too uh a strengthening of the Allies a relationship between the two countries I totally agree with a lot with John catco just said here something also too that China has to be mindful though is that they don't want to lean too heavily on uh their relationship with Russia uh that can alienate Europe not just the United States uh as they do a lot of exports over into Europe so they don't want to see too much um in bed with Russia to where they may alienate their Europe allies that they count on for their economic gangs too as well really interesting enough too as well was how uh Russia and China are looking at um research militarily uh that Russia could definitely use the technology and the military advancements of China uh as they continue uh their offense in Ukraine yeah Mike I think you make a really good point because they do not want to be a global Pariah in the same way that Russia has become in this war they xiin ping still wants to be a global Statesman and um Christina the Biden Administration has taken a tough stance on China they've been building on Trump's tariffs quadrupling tariffs on EVS from China does Biden run the risk of inflaming tensions between these two countries in an election year I mean it's been interesting to watch the Biden Administration continue with the tariffs on China and try and protect a lot of the gains when we talked about John was talking about energy that also China has really positioned themselves as the leader in clean energy and the Biden Administration is trying to fight that seeing the energy Revolution happening across the country and Russia of course wanting to hold on to oil and gas economy I think what's also really interesting not just about this election but to think I don't I really hope Trump doesn't win but if Trum Trump wins this partnership is also a very interesting one because Trump clearly is a big fan of Putin and so but also really against China so who knows where this goes if Republicans were to win clearly uh uh much more support for authoritarian regimes under a republican Administration and Mick just going back to to what you said earlier is there anything that the US can do to influence Xi Jinping when it comes to this cozy relationship with Russia and their support as they wage this war so of course the first thing we could do is show a strong Coalition uh that's something they understand building our our coalitions in the in the Indo Pacific region is a I think a major effort that we are undertaking and it will likely continue whoever is the next uh president that's one the second is to find uh places where we do agree and where there's combined interest and really promote that because one thing I think we should all agree that a conflict between Russia uh China and the United States and our allies is not in anybody's interest so uh we need to have a strong uh defense if you will but we also need to look for places where we have a common goal specifically with China Mike Christina John and Mick so much to get into here thank you all

Channel: ABC News

Views: 40,774

Keywords: China, Jinping, Putin, Russia, abc, abcnl, news, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-110316304

Id: MX932loJByk

Length: 5min 23sec (323 seconds)

Published: Fri May 17 2024