The meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing this week carried symbolism far beyond diplomacy. Coming only days after US President Donald Trump’s high-profile visit to China, the summit highlighted the increasingly complex balance of global power and demonstrated how Beijing is positioning itself […]
East Asia
Saudis, Qataris, & UAE Moving Away From US To Russia-China-Pakistani-Turkish Alliance
Larry Johnson said in interviews on May 20th, that America’s only allies in the Middle East will likely be Israel and Jordan, as a result of which the U.S. will be defeated by Iran if Trump goes for another invasion of Iran. Johnson made clear that crucial to American success in […]
Taiwan At The Center of U.S.-China Diplomacy
As U.S. President Donald Trump prepared for his high-stakes visit to Beijing, one issue was expected to dominate talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping: Taiwan. For the 23 million people living on the self-governed island, the summit could have become one of the most consequential diplomatic events of 2026 – […]
Roses Of Zhongnanhai: How Beijing Sold Out Tehran
Springtime Beijing greeted Donald Trump with the full ceremonial treatment. Temple of Heaven, Confucian references, red flags fluttering, green tea, and the carefully tended roses in the historic gardens of Zhongnanhai. Trump, according to reports, was genuinely impressed by the flowers and asked Xi Jinping for seeds. Xi smiled and […]
Exiting The Oil Cartel: The United Arab Emirates Leaves OPEC
Cartel members are not always a congenial bunch. Relations can get frosty and brittle over time. With the United Arab Emirates, membership of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has not been without its troubles, not helped by the increasingly snarky relationship it shares with the group’s de […]
Five Reasons Why The US Should Withdraw From The Gulf
So long as the US is willing to accept Iran spinning this as an unprecedented strategic defeat of the “Great Satan”, it’ll arguably be able to advance its actual interests much more robustly as was explained, all while giving Iran the “face-saving” pretext for significant concessions to end the war. […]
Trump-Xi Meeting Exposes American Weakness
Trump is traveling to Beijing in the hope of extinguishing fires that he himself has lit. At the negotiating table, Xi Jinping holds the better cards. From 13 to 15 May, Donald Trump will pay a state visit to President Xi Jinping in Beijing. Originally, the intention was to discuss the trade conflict between the […]
Epic Interruptus: The Iranian Snare And American Defeat
On May 10, Robert Kagan, the high priest of neoconservative thought, the bell ringer for muscular interventionism and general American meddlesomeness, lamented in The Atlantic that the United States had suffered a unique defeat in its efforts to subjugate Iran. The article says much about Kagan’s own identification with the […]
The Strategic Calculations Influencing Trump’s & Putin’s Upcoming Meetings With Xi
A US deal with China without one with Russia would be to Russia’s disadvantage and vice versa, but no US deal with either of them might disadvantage Russia in the short term but could harm the US in the long run if it leads to a de facto Sino-Russo alliance. […]
Putin Warns Trump Not to Resume His Aggression Against Iran
Alexander Mercouris, who is perhaps the world’s leading analyst of international relations, and who was born into a Greek diplomatic family and is especially skilled at interpreting the meanings behind official read-outs of communications between heads-of-state, and other diplomatic communications, reported on April 30th that on April 29th, a historic […]






Comments