Last week was bright for political international events… ASEAN, G20, APEC summits, numerous bilateral meetings of world leaders and diplomatic scandals…
Analyzing their results, first of all, it is worth noting that all these formats are the broadest and most comprehensive, in theory — economic, in fact — economic and political platforms. The level of representation of participating States was appropriate. Some face-to-face meetings between the leaders turned out to be the first, at least since the start of the pandemic, or since the start of presidential terms.
Many of us talked, summed up and analyzed the actual achievements all week. However, if we talk about the context… The main result and conclusion with far-reaching consequences was the designation and acceptance, firstly, of the “Asian map”, and secondly, of the Eurasian factor as key in forming of the new world order.
Hint is not taken
China, of course, was in the center of attention at all the above-mentioned events. It is hard to count the number of leaders who wanted to meet with Xi Jinping or mentioned Beijing in their speeches, as the number of media, especially Western ones, who looked everywhere for secret signs and noticed every gesture and word of the CPC Chairman.
It all started with the ASEAN summit, which clearly demonstrated the failure of the West, primarily in the isolation of Russia. Despite the futile attempts by the White House to exert pressure on the eve of the event, Sergey Lavrov became almost the central figure. Washington was hinted that here cooperation with Moscow is highly valued and its participation is respected.
Relations in the Russia-ASEAN format were established back in the last century and since have been developing rapidly and comprehensively. First of all, it is the economy, trade, investments. Vladimir Putin, speaking at the CICA summit in Astana in October, called ASEAN, along with the SCO and the EEC, one of the centers of power in the new multipolar world.
During the summit, Premier Li Keqiang also met with Biden. It was meeting behind closed doors, and apart from official short statements, little is known. However, something is indicative. It was the first face-to-face contact between an American president and any senior Chinese leader in two years.
En passant
After, world leaders moved to Bali. On the sidelines of the G20, the first meeting of the Chinese and American leaders took place. And here we should pay attention to the details. At the beginning of the meeting, Xi Jinping took only two small steps towards Biden, as usual for “host country” and behaved as confidently and firmly as possible, both at open and closed events within the framework of the summit, including the disruption of any anti-Russian initiatives. Whether it is the exclusion of Russia from the G20 or the condemning language on the SMO in the final document. At the same time, EU promoted anti-Chinese theses, especially in the field of innovative technologies.
This was followed by political attacks (Sunak’s statements about «the biggest threat from China to the UK economic security»), diplomatic scandals (Trudeau reveals to the press some details of private talks with Xi) and «political conspiracies» (Western media spread photos of Lavrov and Xi in » identical shirts» at dinner. At the same time, no one paid attention to Macron, who completely ignored the dress code and the «same shirts» of Trudeau and Sunak). Along with these events, another series of meetings and negotiations took place.
About the most important result. The initiative of Scholz, who made his first visit to China as Chancellor of Germany, has a global and large-scale continuation. Following the talks in Bali, Beijing is going to be visited by French President Emmanuel Macron (who originally planned a joint visit with Scholz), newly elected Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. And Xi himself is planning a visit to Saudi Arabia. Let me remind you that his last Middle East tour in 2016 turned out to be a great success and new positions for China, and at the same time resounding failure of Washington’s regional policy. The summit, planned as the most anti-Russian, in fact became absolutely pro-Chinese.
APEC showed approximately the same results. And in general, if we talk about the economy, then the regional economies of both APEC and ASEAN, or rather their successes, are highly dependent on China. Starting with an impressive trading volume, huge investments, infrastructure, health care, technology, education, agriculture and strategic interaction. And given the role of the region in the US anti-China strategy, China is forced to pay even more attention to it and grow inward.
New introductory provisions
However, there was another important Asian actor, who took on new roles — India. The future G20 chairman, rapidly increasing cooperation with Russia, and the same delegate who, as the FT wrote, «helped to find consensus on SMO» at the summit. CNN even proclaimed New Delhi a new Asian great power and the main mediator between Washington and Moscow.
In addition, there was the first meeting between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Modi on the G20 sidelines, and certain agreements on cooperation were concluded between the countries. For example, the parties agreed to give young professionals from India the right to freely obtain a two-year visa to the UK, and the Kingdom would offer more than 30,000 jobs for Indian citizens.
About details, during the dinner at the G20, there was also a meeting ‘on the feet’ between Modi and Xi. Everything looked quite kindly, but what is remarkable, immediately after the handshake and exchange of courtesies, interpreters, representatives of delegations and the head of the Indian Foreign Ministry, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, appeared around them.
Obviously, New Delhi continues to pursue its independent foreign policy, building a strategic partnership with the warring parties, however, in the new geopolitical realities, such a policy can bring much more success and results than before.
Check is done
The White House made a mistake with the choice of the ‘chessboard’ and failed all its planned actions on the fields of these summits, clearly demonstrating to the whole world the collapse of its hegemony, the failure of the course and the lack of control over the situation. And if we take into account the domestic political situation in the United States for the next couple of years, then there is no chance to change the situation.
The collective European West received an unambiguous signal to drift at least towards autonomy, implementing its long-standing «ideas of independence», as a maximum towards Asia.
Apart from Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the European Commission, as well as Canada, Australia, Japan and South Korea, no one supported the war launched by the United States against Russia by the hands of Ukraine.
The countries of the Global South openly challenged the Global North, led by the Anglo-Saxons.
But more importantly, the «Western democracies» finally accepted and confirmed the irreversibility of multipolarity and the formation of a new world order, moreover, with Asian mover.
Daria Peshekhonova