Summary While Russia and China have, for the past few years, been talking about forming a strategic alliance to counterbalance U.S. hegemony, the conflict in Kosovo has driven the two countries together at an unprecedented pace. On May 25, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov denied that Russia and India planned to establish a three-way strategic axis with China as a reaction to NATO air war against Yugoslavia. "We are against the return of the Cold War and we are against separating the world into different blocs. There is no question of forming an axis of rival competing groups," Ivanov said. Only three weeks later, on June 14, Russian First Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Mikhailov said that the Kosovo conflict prompted Moscow to strengthen Russia's defensive power and look for strategic partners. Mikhailov said these partners are India and China.