To challenge the power of his chief rival, the US, Chinese President Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-western states, declaring a “no limits” partnership with Russia and pledging “unswerving” support for North Korea.

Axar.az reports that the spectre of a budding bromance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after their meeting this week in eastern Russia, may not be as welcome a development for Xi as it might initially seem.

To challenge the power of his chief rival, the US, Chinese President Xi Jinping, has linked arms with two anti-western states, declaring a “no limits” partnership with Russia and pledging “unswerving” support for North Korea.

But the spectre of a budding bromance between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, after their meeting this week in eastern Russia, may not be as welcome a development for Xi as it might initially seem.

Closer ties between Pyongyang and Moscow could result in both countries being less reliant on Beijing. That might diminish China’s perceived clout in global negotiations over ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and curtailing North Korea’s nuclear programme.

“I doubt Xi is overjoyed to see the Kim-Putin lovefest unfolding across China’s border,” said John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. Kim and Putin, he said, have reasons to seek more autonomy and leverage from China, the “dominant power in the triangle”, by strengthening their bilateral ties.