This article was originally published in The Diplomat today https://thediplomat.com/2026/05/russia-and-the-china-us-summit/ Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with China’s top leader Xi Jinping in Beijing soon after the China-U.S. summit on May 14-15. Do these back-to-back visits indicate a new phase of triangular diplomacy? Unlike Nixon-era China-U.S. summits, where U.S. and Chinese leaders sought to use their rapprochement to further isolate the Soviet Union, the upcoming...

Photo: https://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-04/25/c_138009515.htm On April 12th, Viktor Orbán—Hungary’s strongman leader for the past 16 years—was defeated resoundingly at the polls. A thorn in the side of the European Union, Orbán also was China’s most important friend in Europe and the first European country to sign a Belt and Road Initiative agreement. One week later, the election in Bulgaria of Rumen Radev as prime minister—typically portrayed as “pro-Russian” and a “Euroskeptic...

Days after the US and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, 2026, the Chinese government published the draft of its 15 th Five-Year Plan for the PRC economy, which outlines key economic benchmarks for the next five-year economic cycle. Building new energy infrastructure is a key priority and among the projects listed there was a intriguing sentence about “advancing preliminary work” on the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Russia to China. Given the...