Building capital on weakening US influence, China is trying to show its support for countries in the global South.
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A recent report by the British think tank Chatham House states outright that investor faith in Europe has all but disappeared. At the same time, it is recommended that the western capital begin to transfer to the “alternate airfield”. It is not difficult to guess where exactly it is recommended to go. The West is not just thinking, but has already begun to create a new political and economic “base” in Asia under the auspices of London.
And in the foreground, of course, the banking house of the Rothschilds. Active negotiations on cooperation are underway with such promising states in the region as Indonesia, Thailand, South Korea and the Philippines.
Just in the first two countries of these “magnificent four” visited a week ago the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, our minister said that a series of targeted activities and substantive consultations are taking place on how to promote cooperation for the benefit of the cause and each other. Special attention is paid to areas such as high technology, digitization, smart cities.
“We know that not everyone likes this, but we are not guided by someone’s preferences, but by the objective tasks of peace and stability in this vast space,” Lavrov said, speaking at the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting in Indonesia.
In Jakarta, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry met only twice with the Russian Foreign Minister. Also, one of the meetings was in the Russia-Indonesia-China format. And then he also held separate negotiations with the head of the office of the CPC Central Committee for Foreign Affairs Commission, Wang Yi.
– The broad and rich agenda of the Russian-Chinese dialogue requires a regular check of the clocks. In this regard, our meeting with you today is very timely … I look forward to a productive dialogue, – Lavrov emphasized, welcoming Wang Yi.
In other words, Russia and China make it clear that together they will defend their interests in Asia. True, the “richer agenda” clearly cannot be called balanced. Take, for example, the statistics on cooperation with Indonesia.
If we take turnover as a percentage, then the figures are comparable. Russia and Indonesia had a growth of 29.9% in 2022. China’s trade with Indonesia grew by 21.5% compared to last year.
But now we switch to dollars and immediately the gap becomes just huge. The commercial turnover between Russia and Indonesia in 2022 amounted to 3.6 billion dollars. But China has 133.6 billion dollars.
– Building capital on weakening US influence, China is trying to show its support for countries in the global South. Unlike Washington, whose actions in Beijing are seen as bullying states into choosing sides, China’s approach to the developing world is to prioritize investment in infrastructure. This is being done through international initiatives, some of which are already underway. For example, One Belt One Road and the Global Development Initiative, through which billions of dollars from the public and private sectors are invested in the infrastructure and development of other countries, says an article published in the latest issue of the authoritative US magazine Foreign Affairs.
It remains to be asked: in such a context, how can Russia succeed? And what happens if the trade gap continues to widen?
