As a sign of its clear commitment to Europe after years of Trump’s isolationism, the United States has expelled 40,000 additional troops to Europe, increasing its strength on the continent to 100,000.
Britain and other NATO members have deployed additional troops on the alliance’s eastern flank in countries bordering Russia.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has finally agreed to meet NATO’s defense target of 2 percent of GDP. It is also investing € 100 billion (£ 85 billion) in rearmament, a promise that would one day send collective trepidation across Europe.
Even Turkey, despite its recent growing ties with Russia, has sided with NATO.
In contrast, other international bodies such as the United Nations – where Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and has the right to veto – have been made irrelevant.
China is undermining
Despite the war in Ukraine, the West has not overlooked the threat from Beijing, as the US Secretary of State has recently tried to point out.
“Even as President Putin’s war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge facing the international order – and that is the challenge posed by the People’s Republic of China,” Mr Blinken said.
When Putin and Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics this February, the world speculated that a new axis of global superpowers was forming. When the war broke out, Mr Si refused to condemn Russia.
Yet the crisis in Ukraine has left China looking weakened and uncertain in its next move.
It seems that Beijing now has double thoughts about its alliance with Moscow. She spoke out against Western sanctions, but did not stop with sincere approval of the war.
“We are impressed that Xi Jinping is a little worried about the reputational damage that could be done to China by the association with the brutality of Russia’s aggression against Ukrainians and certainly unsettled by the economic uncertainty caused by the war,” Bill Burns said. of the CIA.
Fears that China could use the situation to intensify its long-threatened invasion of Taiwan while the world is distracted have never materialized.
President Biden was encouraged enough to threaten military action against China if he ever invaded Taiwan last month.
Washington quickly withdrew from Mr. Biden’s comments – another verbal mistake by a president who seems to specialize in them – but they can also be read as a sign of growing US confidence.
Still in the throes of a pandemic and struggling to make its Zero Covid policy work, China is facing a slowing economy and seems insecure. The United States hopes that the effectiveness of economic sanctions against Russia will deter any future aggression.
But Beijing is still on the path to becoming economically independent. And it is quietly buying Russian-affected oil on bargain purchases.
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