Russia will no longer support international demands to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. With that, Moscow publicly discarded a policy it had upheld for years alongside China - and struck at the American strategy of pressure on Pyongyang.

The statement that leaves no room for interpretation

The reversal was confirmed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, after the ASEAN ministers' meeting in Manila.

„We confirmed what we officially announced two years ago: in conditions where fairly aggressive games are being played around North Korea, with the open aim of containing it or even provoking it into certain military actions, we no longer join calls for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula,” Lavrov said.

Two years ago the same thing was announced and it passed unnoticed. Now it was said at a table where China is also sitting - and that is the difference.

Why this hurts in Beijing, not in Washington

For decades Russia was part of the six-party denuclearisation talks, together with China, both Koreas, the US and Japan. It also voted for UN Security Council sanctions against Pyongyang. That was not a Russian favour to America - it was a joint line with China, which never wanted a nuclear North Korea on its border.

Which is why the reaction came from there. Chinese analysts described the move as one of the most significant reversals in Russian policy towards North Korea. Official Beijing holds its line on a political solution, but Chinese media did not hide their surprise.

The final statement left without one signature

The most symbolic detail: the ASEAN regional forum's final statement again called for denuclearisation - and at that very moment Moscow rejected the demand. No veto, no drama. It simply no longer stands under the text.

With this, the Russian view changes fundamentally: the North Korean arsenal is no longer a problem to be removed, but a permanent security fact the world will live with.

The partnership everybody described as having „no limits” evidently has at least one. And that is no small matter for us - every fresh crack between Moscow and Beijing changes how the big players negotiate everything else, including the war closest to us.