Trump wants to 'un-unite' strategic partners China and Russia. But how will he try to do it?

Days before the US presidential election, Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Arizona that he will work hard to "un-unite" China and Russia if he gets back into the White House.

- Jonathan Eyal

BEIJING/BRUSSELS -

It was just a throwaway remark, one of many Trump made in his rambling campaign trail speeches, so it attracted little attention.

Yet soon after the election results were known, what was blurted in jest had to be taken seriously: Beijing and Moscow began addressing the possibility that, once Trump is sworn into office on Jan 20, 2025, he will attempt to sever the fast-developing Sino-Russian strategic partnership.

Russia's top security official Sergei Shoigu visited Beijing on Nov 12 and told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that the two countries face the "urgent task" of jointly fighting US "containment".

In turn, Mr Wang told Mr Shoigu, head of the Russian Security Council, that the more complex the international situation becomes, the more the two sides need to stand "in solidarity and cooperate in defence of our common interests".

However, few seem to know how Trump plans to distance Russia from China. Nor is it evident that the US President-elect has marked this objective as a priority for his administration.

What remains clear, however, is that breaking the Sino-Russian strategic partnership is much more complicated than Trump seems to believe.

The personal bonds of friendship and trust between the current leaders of Russia and China have always been strong.

Over the decade that he has been in power, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Mr Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, an astonishing 42 times - more than double the number of meetings Mr Xi has held with any other foreign leader.

But the relationship between the two countries really took off in February 2022, when Mr Putin launched his all-out invasion of Ukraine.