10 June 2023 04:30 am Views - 889
In the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union, the US assumed the role of the world’s sole super power. However the US efforts of world domination were challenged by a resurgent Russia and the rising economic cum military power of China in Asia.
In an effort to contain Russia the NATO military pact countries led by the US expand into countries which were once part of the old Soviet Union. Warnings that the move could lead to a tragedy were ignored. A coup in Ukraine overthrew the pro-Kremlin government and brought into power a pro-US regime which attempted to join the NATO bloc.
Claiming NATO was attempting to encircle Russia, President Putin described Ukraine’s entry into NATO as a red line and invaded the country on 24 February 2022. Rather than attempting to defuse the crisis, the US and NATO countries poured arms into Ukraine leading to the tragedy unfolding in Ukraine.
The West also attempted to punish and isolate Russia in the world of finance via sanctioning Russian banks and sale of Russian oil and gas. The sanctions backfired spectacularly.
The sanctioning of Russian banks and currency led to major economies including India, China Turkiye, Cuba and other countries entering into agreements with Russia to use each others currency, by-passing the dollar in trade deals.
Again, rather than the sale of Russian oil dropping after the US-NATO sanctions, more countries are purchasing Russian oil and gas. The ‘Daily Sabah’ reported Russia’s oil export revenues rose by $1.7 billion to $15 billion in April.
Data compiled by Bloomberg showed Saudi Arabia imported 174,000 barrels a day of the diesel and gasoil from Russia in April, and even more since.
On the other side of the world -in Asia- has seen the emergence of China the fastest growing economy in the world with one of the largest military budgets. It also has nuclear weapons and disputes with its many of its neighbours.
For over a century the US has been the world’s leading economy, but the BBC reported UK-based CEBR think tank forecast China will overtake the US to become the world’s largest economy by 2028, five years earlier than previously forecast
In the meantime the US national debt this year stands at US $ 31, 857,000,000 (US$ 31.8 trillion)! In an earlier era the extent of the US debt did not matter much as the US$ was the standard currency of exchange.
As ‘Forbes’ points out, it’s because US debts are denominated in dollars. As the sole manufacturer of dollars, whose debt is denominated in dollars, the U.S. government can never become insolvent as it simply prints the dollars required to pay off its debts!
Because of its position of world domination the US could also pressurize ‘lesser’ countries to do its bidding. This situation, has also changed. Most recently Saudi Arabia one of the closest allies of the US in the Gulf rejected a US demand it (Saudi) increase oil production to help bring world oil prices down and damage the Russian economy.
Today especially in the aftermath of the Ukraine war and with countries moving away from using the US$ as the base currency for trade, the US can no longer afford to print money to bridge its deficit. If it continues, it stands in danger of falling into bankruptcy.
Having failed in its strategy to crush Russia through the Ukraine war, the US is now upping the ante and attempting to entangle China in disputes with its neighbours who have disputes with that country.
The US as in the case of Ukraine, attempting to use Taiwan as it’s cat’s paw to enter into a conflict with Taiwan’s huge neighbour -China. At the same time the US is trying to draw other Asian countries to buy into its conflict with China.
It is attempting to form a NATO-like combine in the Asia region to confront China. A prime target is India. Fortunately India is wise to these tactics and has long stressed that the Indo-Chinese problem has existed for a long time and both countries are capable of settling their problems without the intervention of third parties.
Our own president has continually stressed that the countries of Asia must never allow big-power politics spill into the Indian ocean.
Asia has long suffered under the yoke of colonialism. We are quite capable of settling our problems. We do not need ex-colonial powers entering or meddling in Asian problems.