The China in Europe Research Network (CHERN) is pleased to invite you to the second instalment of our CHERN China-Russia Talks series, a set of public roundtables exploring how the Russia-China partnership is evolving across different regions of the world.
Following our first session on Russia-China cooperation in the Arctic, this roundtable turns to the Middle East, a region where the contours of that partnership are being tested in real time.
Russia-China Dynamics in the Middle East
Wednesday, 22 July 2026
14:30–15:45 (Brussels time)
Since October 2023, the Middle East has been convulsed by successive crises: the war in Gaza, the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria, and the unprecedented direct military confrontation between Israel and Iran in 2025. Russia, long a security guarantor for Damascus and a strategic partner of Tehran, has seen its regional standing shift dramatically even as its war in Ukraine continues to absorb its attention and resources. China, meanwhile, has pursued a careful balancing act: deepening economic ties with Gulf states and Israel alike while positioning itself rhetorically as a champion of the Palestinian cause and an alternative to a US-led regional order.
This roundtable will ask what these developments mean for the Moscow-Beijing relationship itself: Are Russia and China coordinating their approaches to the region, or largely pursuing independent – and at times divergent – interests? How do energy ties, arms transfers, and diplomatic posturing at the UN and elsewhere reflect the broader asymmetries in their partnership? And how are regional actors, from Gulf monarchies to Israel and Iran, adjusting their own strategies as they navigate between Washington, Moscow, and Beijing? And finally, what should Europe learn from this and adjust its policy?
Speakers:
Alexander Gabuev
Alexander Gabuev is one of the foremost analysts of Russian foreign policy and the Sino-Russian relationship, whose work has been instrumental in shaping how policymakers and researchers understand the asymmetric “partnership without limits” between Moscow and Beijing.
Andrea Ghiselli
Andrea Ghiselli is author of the pathbreaking study Protecting China’s Interests Overseas and a leading voice on how China’s security thinking towards the Middle East has evolved, including how Chinese policy circles themselves view Russia’s role in the region.
Galia Lavi
Galia Lavi is a sharp and widely-read analyst of China’s Middle East policy from a vantage point at the very centre of the region’s recent upheavals, known for her incisive work on the contradictions in Beijing’s posture towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the wider region.
