“The first foreign trip of any head of state should be a carefully calculated move,” the China Daily newspaper reported. “The country he or she visits is supposed to be important to his or her own country’s foreign relations.”

For his first trip, last week the new Russian President Dmetry Medvedev went to China, via Kazakhstan.

In May 2003, Chinese President Hu Jintao went to Russia for his first foreign visit. As the China Daily wrote, “Clearly, new leaders of the two countries have put their bilateral relations on top of their foreign-policy agenda.”

Russia and China have been moving closer together over the past few years. Under Vladamir Putin’s presidency, bilateral trade between the two countries grew almost five-fold to $48 billion. Post-Soviet Russia has also supplied more than 90 percent of China’s weapons imports, and Russia has made a strong show of support for China over its brutal crackdown in Tibet. It has also been generous in providing aid for China’s earthquake victims.

On Medvedev’s first trip, Russia and China made more deals bringing them closer together. Russia gained contracts worth $1.5 billion, mainly dealing with nuclear power. For the first time, Russia will also share some of its secret gas centrifuge technology.

Hu and Medvedev also both signed a document that, although not mentioning the United States by name, denounced plans for a missile defense system in Europe.

Medvedev also signaled how he hoped the relationship between Russia and China would grow in the future. “Our priority attention will be given to high technology, aircraft building, nuclear energy, space, information technology and nanotechnology,'’ he said.

“Russian-Chinese cooperation is now becoming a key factor in international security—a factor without which it would be impossible to take fundamental decisions through international cooperation,” Medvedev said at Beijing University.

Russia and China still have several disagreements. The Russia-China bilateral committee on military development has not met for two years. Despite its history of buying from Russia, China has recently ordered no new Russian military equipment. The two countries also have some disputes over oil supplies.

This visit does not mean Russia and China get along perfectly right now, but it does demonstrate where Russia’s priorities lie. Russia is looking east. As Europe rises and the U.S. wanes, watch for the Asian nations to band together to increase their own power. For more information on this rapidly emerging world power bloc, read Russia and China in Prophecy.