The year 2013 is memorable for the increasing liveliness of discussions about the future of Sino-Russian relations. When Xi Jinping made his first visit as president in March to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin, whose posture in starting his third term as president was decidedly more critical of the United States, interest was mounting in how much closer bilateral relations would be. Already there were signs of rising Russian arms sales to China. In May, as covered in the Country Report in Issue 1 of this journal, articles by Alexander Lukin and Zhao Huasheng suggested that debates about upgrading relations were raising expectations, which specialists were keen on restraining, since they defied Russia’s interest in multipolarity and in opportunities elsewhere in Asia. In a ten-day, mid-summer span more articles—by Zhao and also Evgenyi Bazhanov, Lukin’s superior as rector at the Diplomatic Academy—took the discussion to a new level by giving serious consideration to the idea that the two states should form an alliance. While disagreeing with that goal, they presented the arguments for and against, giving readers a window on a once little-known debate. In September, The Asan Forum’s Special Forum posted articles by Lukin and Cheng Xiaohe, which expressed parallel reasoning in strategic thinking about North Korea. With this new Special Forum we probe triangular Sino-Russian relations further.

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