A few days ago I noted that new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a visit to China one of his first official acts. In fact, he was only President for 2 weeks before he headed off to China. While he was there, he signed some agreements (more detail below) and took the opportunity to kick sand in the US’s face:
Speaking at a university a day after he and Chinese President Hu Jintao criticized U.S. missile defense plans, Medvedev rejected what he said was opposition to Russian-Chinese cooperation in remarks that sounded like a veiled jab at the United States.
“Some don’t like such strategic cooperation between our countries, but we understand that this cooperation serves the interests of our people, and we will strengthen it, regardless of whether others like it or not,” the Russian leader said. “Russian-Chinese relations are one of the most important factors of maintaining stability in modern conditions.”
The jabs continued:
Medvedev never mentioned the United States by name and said the Russian-Chinese alliance “is not directed against any other nation.
“It is aimed at maintaining a global balance,” he said.
“Global balance” is code for “eliminating the unipolar world dominated by the US.” As I mentioned above, Medvedev and Hu signed some agreements, none of which should be good news for the US.
Russia also strengthened its role as a supplier to China’s booming nuclear power industry Friday, signing a $1 billion deal to build a fuel enrichment facility and supply uranium.
They also signed a more general statement on global issues, including security, energy, and the environment (the best description is here. The summary as far as the US is concerned looks like this:
- US shouldn’t be the dominant player in global security
- US shouldn’t attack Iran
- US shouldn’t deploy missile defense systems
These are all pretty self-serving, of course: the motives of the first and third are obvious, and Iran is a key purchaser of Russian and Chinese military products, and a critical component of China’s energy strategy. Basically they want to stall the US until they get their economic and military ducks in a row, and then they’ll be able to dictate terms, rather than just make noise.
Unfortunately, those ducks are lining up nicely.
May 24, 2008 at 11:39 am
Just imagine if the US wasn’t a source of global stability.
You only need look at the countries opposed to the US stance towards Iran: Russia, China, Venezuela, North Korea…and more…
None of them are exactly blessed with wonderful human rights records – they are not free states.
So what we have are several predictable positions in the world: Comfortable states that would prefer everything stay just like it is w/o upsetting the boat, those who abuse their own populace and want more power, and those who want the world to be a place where people are not killed outright or punished for wanting their voices to be heard (the Sheepdog People).
I’m rather proud that we’re a sheepdog country. Embarrassed that we have ignored Rwanda and Darfur but still… At some point the world is going to have to step up and do more if all they are ever going to do is bitch about the US. One reason why I hate the UN – it’s a feeding trough with no real mission that anybody is willing to sacrifice for.
May 24, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Somewhere long ago I posted about my proposal that the U.S. should pull out of the United Nations and replace it with the World Congress of Civilized and Significant Democracies. We could also disband NATO, the World Bank, the Group of Seven, the OECD, and the WTO, because the WCCSD would displace them all. It would be sort of a global military alliance, free trade zone, and economic development channel, headquartered in Buffalo, New York, or Warsaw, Poland, or some similar place where Eurotrash would refuse to live. It’s various agencies would be forbidden to hold a conference anywhere within 100 miles of a beach with palm trees, or a ski resort.
The WCCSD would be founded by the U.S. and a few key allies, with membership by invitation only and continued eligibility to be reviewed annually. Membership would not be available to shit-disturbers (e.g., Russia, China, Venezuela), douchebags (e.g., France), third world hellholes (e.g., all of Africa), or countries that simply don’t matter (e.g., Finland).
The excluded countries would then be free to form their own alliance, the International Federation of Pathetic Countries, so that they have a forum to bitch about us, decry our rape of the third word, angrily protest our missile defense systems, and hold conferences in Bali about global warming.
I had a pretty elaborate proposal, with voting rights and everything all worked out. I just don’t remember where I posted it. Probably a thread at AOSHQ years ago.
May 24, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Sounds kind of like what McCain (and others) are now proposing. Seems like a good idea to me though isn’t that basically what the G6/G7 started out to be? Before Russian horned in and then all the other guys in the G8+5.
I wonder how long an organization like the WCCSD could maintain its ideological purity.
May 24, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Michael, if ours were truly a civilized country, you would be king.
I love the “nowhere near a beach” comment – thank you for remembering that.
Essentially, I would rather associate with countries any country that can deal with us without pompously sneering down their noses at us (yes, the “flip side” examples being most of Europe).