Newsweek ran an article on the 1st July 2022: "As NATO Grows, China and Russia Seek to Bring Iran, Saudi Arabia Into Fold"
(Image: LobeLog.com)
Some observations from this article:
China Russia are pulling middle size powers (Indo, Iran, Argentina, Thai etc) into their camps. I can imagine their vision: build a community of non-Western countries (90% world population, 60%+ world GDP) with China as the leader. This will diminish the US influence in the world overtime. As a result, the West will be poorer compared to the rest, i.e. shrinking % GDP of the world.
Many countries are assessing who the winner of US-China contest is. They are increasingly in favour of China. After all, China is their biggest trading partner.
Saudi joining BRICS will mark the start of the end of the USD as the dominant world reserve currency because Saudi will sell oil for non-USD currencies.
China clearly wants a peaceful rise. The US-led West doesn't and it shows from the recent NATO & G7 summits.
(Image: ResearchGate)
Another note on a neighbour of China, Vietnam. Vietnam (VN) is not recruited by China in the BRICS expansion and Belt Road projects. Therefore, most likely the USA will pull VN into their camp. If VN chooses the USA side, it will be a disaster for the country, just like Ukraine which is next to a world power. The best thing for VN is siding with China camp economically while staying neutral politically and militarily. Singapore is a good example. It's a huge challenge because small countries are always influenced by the big ones. VN has a big population so it has the potential to be powerful. First, it needs to be rich. Once the country is rich like Japan, Korea in terms of GDP/capita, VN can have real sovereignty and won't be easily bullied or meddled with by world major powers. Before that days, it needs to be humble and smart dealing with US and China. It means that it should not anger the powerful neighbours or it will be destroyed like Ukraine now. Another good example is the Baltic countries and Poland. Currently, these countries are aggressively provoking Russia because they think they have the giant USA at their backs. In my opinion, it is a stupid strategy and they will likely be wrecked like Ukraine in the near future. That kind of choice Vietnam has to avoid in order to live in peace.
Vietnam is not the only one who has to make a choice: US or China. Many countries in Asia Pacific and South Asia will be asked to choose too, especially those bordering China like Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Korea.
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