Russian President Vladimir Putin has just completed a three-day visit to China, his third as president and the first of his second term. The meetings were cordial and productive, marked by the usual rhetoric with which the former allies, who were once estranged but now eye each other anxiously, are so familiar. Moscow and Beijing need each other, but they cannot escape the rivalry and suspicions that mark their relationship.
China and Russia have searched for mutual accommodation since Mr. Putin took office. The Russian president had figured that a U.S.-dominated world order did not give his country sufficient leverage and global influence. So he looked for partners to build a balancing bloc vis-a-vis the United States and elevate Russia's international status: Europe was one option, but trans-Atlantic ties limited the possibilities of that relationship. China was another; fortunately for Mr. Putin, a similar logic was at work among the leadership in Beijing.
The two governments sealed their new relationship in 2001 with the Treaty on Good Neighborly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation. Although the treaty was designed to stabilize the bilateral relationship, primarily by ending old irritants, it raised fears among some of a new Beijing-Moscow axis. Those fears have proven exaggerated.