President Hu of China is in Russia for a four-day visit with Putin where the two will agree on an array of political and economic ties for their roles in the region and in the world.

Chinese President Hu Jintao Friday called for greater efforts to strengthen the strategic partnership and economic and trade ties between China and Russia. Hu Jintao met Russia????????s top lawmakers, Boris Gryzlov, and Sergei Mironov. Later he and Putin signed a joint declaration on the new world order in the 21st century.

In a meeting with Boris Gryzlov, chairman of Russia????????s State Duma, Hu said that, faced with the complicated and changing international situation, China and Russia should work together to deepen mutual political trust, boost mutually beneficial cooperation and strengthen coordination in international and regional affairs, China????????s official Xinhua News Agency said.

Hu arrived in Russia Thursday for a four-day visit.

Gryzlov, who met Hu last month when visiting China as head of a State Duma delegation, said bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Russia and China have been fruitful. The State Duma has been actively advocating stronger Russia-China ties and greater exchanges and cooperation between the two countries???????? legislatures to fulfill the goals set by the two governments in boosting trade and investment ties, Gryzlov said.
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At the beginning of a four-day visit Hu called on Russia to join it in ???????strategic coordination??????? to help each other face up to ???????new threats??????? and to ???????safeguard??????? common interests, such as the two country????????s territorial integrity in disputes with others, Xinhua said.

It seems like everytime these two or their officials meet, the countries become closer and closer. Besides the obvious economic advantages, I believe that the increased cooperation signals a consolidation of political influence in a region that has been under heavy barrage by the United States and Europe, mostly dealing with criticism and the moving of several ex-Soviet republics toward the west. I doesn’t necessarily mean that the two are outright friendly now, but they are doing so out of strategic necessity. You just have to listen to them to get a feel for their intentions.

MOSCOW ???????? Russia and China warned other nations Friday against attempts to dominate global affairs and interfere in the domestic issues of sovereign nations in what appeared to be a veiled expression of their irritation with U.S. policy.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Hu Jintao signed a joint declaration after two days of talks calling for a stronger United Nations role in global affairs and opposing attempts “to impose models of social and political development from outside.”

The two leaders also urged other states to renounce “striving for monopoly and domination in international affairs and attempts to divide nations into leaders and those being led.”

While the declaration did not identify any specific country, it echoed similar veiled hints by Moscow and Beijing about U.S. policy in global affairs.

After decades of rivalry, Moscow and Beijing have developed what they call a strategic partnership since the 1991 Soviet collapse, pledging their adherence to a “multipolar world,” a term that refers to their opposition to U.S. domination.

Perhaps it isn’t explicitly stated, but most of the concern for both countries in recent months has been in Central Asia, where we have seen an revolution in Kyrgyzstan and a massacre in Uzbekistan. This translates into increased interest by the United States in seeing liberal democracy take root, which in turn means less control by Moscow. As a huge regional power, Beijing is looking to put its hands in the cookie jar, so it is in the perfect position to aid Russia’s interests while securing its own.

This will probably come about through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a little talked about — and little used — organization for, you guessed it, cooperation between Russia, China, and the states of Central Asia. It would be the perfect means already in place by which to cooperate and thus exert influence over these countries. That is not to say these this would be necessarily unwelcome. The dictators in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and onward are in a position where they want to preserve control and stability above all else.

Another revitalization is coming in the form of the CIS economic zone, which includes relatively the same countries. The failure of the CIS will probably regulate it to just easier trade, where the SCO will be military and political ties. Trade is good, as it facilitates the necessary environment for legal reform and hence political reform. But in the shadow of backsliding Russia and totalitarian China, these countries may not see the benefits and that is of particular concern, just as how Russian trade with Belarus has kept the regime alive even through international pressure. How this is playing out could certainly impede progress, or what there has been of it, in the region.