There is no doubt that Russia and China are already shaping global politics to a large extent and will continue to do so throughout the 21st century. It is obvious that relations between the two powers are often described in abbreviated form as a friendship between autocracies that are directed against the Western community of values. This is certainly not entirely wrong, but the description is too superficial.

The history, present and future of Sino-Russian relations were the focus of a public event organized by the Academy in cooperation with the University of Cologne and the University of Bonn. The public evening event marked the start of a conference sponsored by the Gerda and Hermann Weber Foundation in the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the Past. Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik (University of Vienna), Kirsten Bönker (Nordost-Institut an der Universität Hamburg IKGN e.V.) and Lorenz Lüthi (McGill University, Montreal) moderated the discussion, which was chaired by Felix Wemheuer (University of Cologne).

From a historical perspective, it was discussed that alliances between China and Russia have historically always been temporary and never permanent. Ideological conflicts and disputes over the distribution of roles led to the division of the communist world movement and resulted in hostilities such as the Ussuri border conflict of 1969. Even today, the mutual perception of the two countries remains ambivalent. The two powers were often part of complex tripartite constellations in which at least one power always sought to drive a wedge between the other two. It was also discussed that the term “Cold War” only covers the global political situation in the second half of the 20th century very briefly and inadequately. The discussion was extended to the Russia’s full scale aggression against Ukraine, which the panelists believe plays a central role in the current changing world order.