When Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet this week, they will have plenty to talk about, thanks to US President Donald Trump.
Xi is travelling to Vladivostok, a Far East Russian city close to its borders, Tuesday and Wednesday for an economic conference where he is expected to meet Putin, while China joins vast Russian war games for the first time.
Neither side has said what they'll discuss, but Trump's policies on trade and North Korea are topics of interest to both Russia and China.
And the US sanctions on Russia have played a role in driving Russia and China closer together.
The setting is also symbolic Vladivostok and the Russian Far East are developing close ties with China, including building a vast new casino complex aimed at attracting Chinese high-rollers.
"Russia is the first choice for Chinese tourists these days. First of all, people here are nice and warm. Secondly, you come here, and the ruble is falling, so it's practical," said local businessman Liu Xing An.
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China is sending 3,200 troops to take part in Russia's vast Vostok (East) military exercises this month. They're scheduled every four years and some previous versions have modeled scenarios similar to a Russia-China conflict.
"It sends a very strong message to China, saying that Russia doesn't see China as an adversary or a military threat any more," says analyst Alexander Gabuev, who follows Russia-China relations for the Carnegie Institute in Moscow.
"It also sends a signal to Washington, DC, saying that if the U.S. continues on its current course by pressuring Russia and imposing more sanctions, Russia will fall even more into the firm embrace of China, America's only strategic competitor in the 21st century."
"China wanted to appear as helpful to the US and was imposing a lot of (United Nations) sanctions and was pretty strict by Chinese standards, whereas it was Russia that provided a lot of channels for (North) Korea to violate sanctions."