
-
Woods teams with Augusta National on course design, school project
-
Real Madrid goalkeeper Courtois fit to face Arsenal in Champions League
-
Masters halts practice for the day and evacuates spectators
-
Kane in 'top three' for Ballon d'Or, says Klinsmann
-
Bengaluru edge Mumbai to spoil Bumrah's return in IPL
-
Medvedev battles past Khachanov at Monte Carlo
-
Montpellier axe coach Gasset as Ligue 1 relegation looms
-
US 'turns a blind eye', says American-Palestinian after son killed by Israel
-
France, Egypt, Jordan say Palestinian Authority must head post-war Gaza
-
Netanyahu meets Trump for tariff and Gaza talks
-
Night at the museum: UK's National Gallery offering guest sleepover
-
airBaltic CEO 'dismissed' from Latvian airline
-
German police earn their stripes with zebra-loaded van stop
-
'Bloodbath': Spooked Republicans warn Trump over US tariffs
-
Trump vows huge new China tariffs as markets nosedive
-
Belgian prince loses legal quest for social security
-
Facing Trump's trade war, EU seeks to quell divisions
-
France detains alleged Romanian royal wanted in home country
-
Van Dijk reveals 'progress' in talks over new Liverpool contract
-
Starmer unveils support for tariff-hit auto sector
-
Clem Burke, drummer for Blondie, dies at 70
-
Dortmund defender Schlotterbeck ruled out for season with injury
-
Arteta says Arsenal can upset Real Madrid on 'biggest night' of career
-
Bayern will not 'change goals' despite injury woes, says Kompany
-
Inter captain Martinez fined 5,000 euros for blasphemy
-
Netanyahu to plead with Trump for tariff break
-
Arsenal's Saka says injury break 'really good' mentally
-
EU funding of NGOs 'too opaque', auditors find amid political storm
-
La Liga appeal decision allowing Barcelona's Olmo to play again
-
JPMorgan Chase CEO warns tariffs will slow growth
-
World sport-starved Moscow cheers Ovechkin NHL record
-
Stocks sink again as Trump holds firm on tariffs
-
Trump warns against 'stupid' panic as markets plummet
-
Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure
-
Macron rejects any Hamas role in post-war Gaza
-
Boeing settles to avoid civil trial over Ethiopian Airlines crash
-
EU split on targeting US tech over Trump tariffs
-
Russia, accused of stalling, wants answers before truce
-
German climate activist faces expulsion from Austria after ban
-
Southampton sack manager Juric after Premier League relegation
-
Fowler hits the target as Matildas down South Korea
-
Brook named new England white-ball cricket captain
-
Honda executive resigns over 'inappropriate conduct'
-
Stocks, oil prices sink further as Trump stands firm over tariffs
-
'Alarming' microplastic pollution in Europe's great rivers
-
Spurs boss Postecoglou glad of Johnson revival ahead of Europa quarter-final
-
Major garment producer Bangladesh says US buyers halting orders
-
Former Wales fly-half Biggar to retire at end of rugby season
-
African players in Europe: Iwobi ends goal drought to help sink Reds
-
The worst market crashes since 1929
CMSC | -0.45% | 22.19 | $ | |
AZN | -4.18% | 65.715 | $ | |
NGG | -4.12% | 63.32 | $ | |
RBGPF | 1.48% | 69.02 | $ | |
SCS | -3.62% | 10.21 | $ | |
GSK | -4.78% | 34.865 | $ | |
BTI | -0.94% | 39.49 | $ | |
RIO | -0.5% | 54.4 | $ | |
CMSD | -1.24% | 22.55 | $ | |
BCC | -3.41% | 92.29 | $ | |
RYCEF | -0.61% | 8.2 | $ | |
VOD | -1.74% | 8.355 | $ | |
BCE | -2.16% | 22.229 | $ | |
JRI | -6.79% | 11.2 | $ | |
RELX | -6% | 45.435 | $ | |
BP | -4.32% | 27.205 | $ |

China ups stakes for Biden by backing Moscow against West
China's support for Russia in the standoff over Ukraine upends the strategic calculus for US President Joe Biden, who must now contend with a second front in a geopolitical fight whose ramifications could be felt worldwide.
By jointly lashing out Friday at Washington's alleged destabilising policies in both Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, Beijing and Moscow indicated that sanctions alone would not deter their bids to play larger roles on the global stage.
Appearing publicly as the Beijing Olympics opened, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping showed an "enhanced commitment to make the world safe for authoritarianism, in particular in former socialist countries," said Steve Tsang, a political scientist at the SOAS University of London.
And for Xi, taking a public stand on Ukraine demonstrates "his shared interest with Putin to challenge the US-dominated world order", Tsang told AFP.
Official Chinese media outlets have been playing up the frequent encounters between Xi and Putin since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, which saw the Russian leader largely blacklisted by the West.
China's Global Times noted recently that "besides the official meetings, the two also shared some close moments like enjoying vodka, caviar and Russian ice cream and celebrating each other's birthdays".
"We know that both Russia and China value sovereignty above anything else, so alliance is still too strong of a word," said Anton Barbashin, an analyst at the Riddle think-tank in Glasgow, Scotland.
"But we are definitely going to see more coordinated action in international relations, maybe simultaneous campaigns in Europe and Asia, as well as deepening economic ties between Moscow and Beijing," he told AFP.
- 'Opportunity costs' -
And the Ukraine crisis gives Xi a chance to riposte indirectly to Biden's avowed focus of containing China's ambitions in the Asia-Pacific, as evidenced by the recent US-Australia defence pact and nuclear submarines deal.
"It increases Russia's relative importance for China -- Xi couldn't have provoked Biden nor Europe this openly," said Pascal Ausseur, a former French navy admiral and director of the Mediterranean Foundation of Strategic Studies.
"And Putin showed Xi that he knows how to take geopolitical and military risks, which Beijing must have appreciated," he said.
Putin is using the threat to invade Ukraine to demand a halt to NATO expansion and what it calls "Cold War" ideologies, and now has Beijing's explicit support in the showdown.
"Don't forget that Barack Obama told Putin that Russia was only a regional power -- he wants to show that Russia plays a central role, and he's succeeding," Ausseur said.
The payoff for China, meanwhile, could be in its own backyard: More US troops focussing on Ukraine and other Eastern European nations means less military weight to compete with Beijing in the Pacific.
The US response to Moscow on any Ukraine invasion, for example, could weigh heavily on any Chinese move to take control of Taiwan, whose independence Washington has signalled it would defend.
"US strategies designed to deter or overextend Russia should not inadvertently overextend the United States by imposing high opportunity costs," the RAND Corp analyst Stephanie Pezard wrote in a recent analysis.
Both Russia and China would also seize on any apparent US backdown over Ukraine to portray Washington as an unreliable partner, a potent argument as both countries look to spread their global influence, in particular in Africa.
"If the United States chooses retrenchment rather than its traditional global leadership role, both Russia and China could try to fill the void," Pezard said.
Experts also agreed that time is on Putin's side, as he left Moscow to meet with Xi in Beijing ahead of the opening of the of the Winter Olympic Games -- which Biden and other Western leaders pointedly snubbed.
"Putin should be able to get Xi to commit to support Russia should the Ukraine situation end up with Russia being sanctioned -- but probably on the understanding that Putin will not spoil Xi's Winter Games" by invading Ukraine during the competitions, Tsang said.
J.Gomez--AT