Missile defense and early warning missile attack system cooperation: Enhancing the Sino-Russian defense partnership

Abstract

• Russia is offering China assistance to develop its own early warning missile attack system. This marks a new area of strategic cooperation between the two states and markedly upgrades the potential for China’s strategic defense capabilities. • It remains unclear what the exact nature and future trajectory of the early warning system initiative and Sino-Russian missile defense cooperation more broadly will be. • China and Russia are unlikely to construct an integrated missile defense system akin to what the US has with several of its allies. • Despite Western (recurring) concerns of a China-Russia military alliance in the making, there are several obstacles for this to happen. Nonetheless, the early warning system initiative attests to closer Sino-Russian defense cooperation, including in more strategic fields and sensitive technologies. The West should follow these developments closely.