Russia’s President Vladimir Putin (L) is greeted by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before the opening ceremony of the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit in Shanghai, May 21, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Mark Ralston)

Conflicts in the Middle East have recently been escalating and with the recent vetoing by China and Russia for a resolution to Syrian conflicts, it raises the question; why is China and Russia protecting, in a sense, the current Syrian government? In an article posted by Holly Yan on August 29, 2013 on CNN’s website, which can also be found on my Diigo account, titled, “Syria allies: Why Russia, Iran and China are standing by the regime” Yan examines just this. While there are many reasons to why every country is standing by the regime such as Russia’s ideologies, which could be threatened if the Syrian government fails, Iran’s strategy as Syria being a Shiite government and thus more supportive of Iran, or China’s trading which goes back to the silk road.

Another article by Vitaly Naumkin titled, “Putin brings China into Middle Eastern strategy” highlights more specific reasons as to why Russia and China are involved in Syrian conflicts. China again goes back to trading relations. They see Syria as  a part of one of China’s main strategic regional projects. The economic region (or belt) of the 21st century Great Silk Road and the Maritime Silk Road, which intends to create a wide area of Chinese economic presence from China’s western borders to Europe. Russia on the other hand would prefer Syria’s current government to stay in power so that Western Power’s do not influence Syria to their ways of democracy which will of course harm Russia’s government and leave them with even less allies.

All of these reasons, China’s silk road and Russia’s anti-demotractic stance, came into play when both China and Russia veto’d the most current resolution to Syrian conflicts which would allow the U.N. (United Nations) to convict war criminals in Syria. The Syrian conflicts continue with China and Russia sticking close by.