Beyond the friendliness of Xi Jinping's unprecedented meeting with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un last week, there are limits to what the European Union has called the "autocratic alliance" opposing the West, diplomats, lawmakers and analysts said.
While their gathering at a military parade in China on September 3 sparked concern among some world leaders who saw it as a major geopolitical shift, Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang are far from forming a cohesive bloc, the sources said.
They pointed to the lack of a formal trilateral summit at the event and uncertainty over key economic agreements such as a gas pipeline project. The sources said the vague promises of closer cooperation may be aimed more at gaining leverage in the talks being discussed with US President Donald Trump.
"I don't see this as a bid for a new order," said Victor Cha, director of geopolitics and foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
"This is a bid for disorder and opportunism based on short-sighted self-interest," said Cha, who previously served as director for Asian affairs at the White House National Security Council.
Still, "optics matter," said a longtime US diplomat in Asia who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"While China, Russia and North Korea will undoubtedly continue to have differences on specific policy areas, all three have made it clear that they are united in their antipathy to the international system, led by the US," the diplomat noted.
Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba used his resignation speech on Sunday to note that the sight of its nuclear-armed neighbors standing side by side underscored the grave security risk. EU foreign policy chief Kaia Kallas earlier described their meeting as a growing "autocratic alliance".
Trump said on the social media site Truth Social that Xi, Putin and Kim were conspiring against him, a statement the Kremlin dismissed as ironic. A US official said Trump was "disappointed to see some countries siding with China" and that "America will reassess" situation.
FRUSHES
The parade was the culmination of Xi's diplomatic tour of power, helped Putin counter Western narratives of his international isolation over the war in Ukraine and gave Kim tacit support for his banned nuclear weapons, analysts said.
Although Xi hosted private talks with both Putin and Kim, the trio did not sit down together for a formal summit.
"China did not seem to be giving any indication that it was starting formal trilateral cooperation," said Jenny Town, director of 38 North, a Washington-based project that monitors North Korea.
Analysts say that suggests a more direct show of force, such as trilateral joint military exercises, remains a distant prospect. This also contrasts with the rival superpower, the United States, which relies on security alliances such as NATO and multilateral summits with Japan and South Korea, as well as the "Quad" group with Japan, Australia and India, to project its global power.
On the economic front, there appeared to be more tangible results, driven by a "binding memorandum" between Russia and China for a huge gas pipeline announced during the summit.
Despite Putin's hype, China has not mentioned the pipeline in any of its official statements and has deflected questions on the subject at a regular press briefing.
There remain issues with the long-delayed project to transport gas some 3,000 km across Siberia to China, such as the price and terms.
Beijing is also refusing to open its market for winter wheat, according to Russian Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut, who traveled with Putin to Beijing in the hope of securing access to China.
Since the summit, there have been signs that China is moving to open its domestic bond markets to Russian companies that are cut off from Western capital. The Russian Finance Ministry, however, warned that it would prefer the bonds to be issued locally.
THE TRUMP FACTOR
The lineup of senior Chinese economic officials who attended Xi Jinping's first face-to-face meeting with Kim in six years suggests that trade was likely also on the agenda, said a senior foreign diplomat in Beijing, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Beijing's official account of the talks also made no mention of "nuclear disarmament" for the first time in years, which some analysts have described as a major concession by Kim.
In response, South Korea's foreign ministry called on Beijing to play a constructive role in bringing Pyongyang to dialogue over its nuclear program.
In a letter after the summit, Xi told Kim that China was ready to step up strategic communications with North Korea, Chinese state media reported on Monday.
With complex issues such as the status of North Korean workers in China still unresolved, however, the friendly language could be aimed both at gaining leverage over Washington and seeking meetings with the two leaders.
Trump is expected to visit the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in South Korea in late October, setting up possible talks with Xi amid tense trade talks between the world's two largest economies.
Although the reclusive Kim has shown no signs of wanting to resume talks with Trump that broke down in 2019, the South Korean intelligence is monitoring the possibility that this diplomatic whirlwind could lead to the doors being opened, South Korean lawmaker Lee Song-kyun revealed.