While world leaders fight for prominence in their speeches to the UN General Assembly, which begins this Tuesday (19), the protagonists of the bloc opposing the United States in Cold War 2.0 are making other plans .
The Kremlin confirmed that President Vladimir Putin will make his first trip abroad after his arrest was ordered by the International Criminal Court in March. The target will be Xi Jinping’s China, his most important ally in the geopolitical conflict with Washington and its partners.
The duo’s absence from New York is not unprecedented: Putin was virtually at the UN plenum in 2020, during the Covid19 pandemic, and Xi attended in person in 2021. It is ironic considering that both leaders use the word multilateralism in virtually all foreign policy discourse. Notably, Xi previously skipped the G20 summit in rival India and was not issued an arrest warrant.
But now the rhetoric is giving way to action. As the flights carrying heads of state and government arrived in the United States, Russia hosted a lavish reception for Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. During his meetings in Moscow, he discussed the war in Ukraine and tensions on the Korean peninsula just days after Putin met with the North’s dictator Kim Jongun, an ally of Beijing.
The scenario was complemented by the announcement of a visit by Russian Defense Minister Serguei Choigu to discuss military cooperation with ally Iran. The Ayatollah’s UShostile country appears to be experiencing a turning point with the release of American prisoners, but it is very close to Moscow.
These are Iranian Shahed136 drones, which have been given a new paint job and the euphemistic name Geranium2 and which the Russians send to attack targets in Ukraine almost every night. This Tuesday there were explosions in the city of Lviv in the west of the country, although Kiev claims to have shot down 27 of the 30 suicide bombers. At least six people died across the country.
So far, the Iranians are the only official arms suppliers to the Russian war effort, which could change if Kim actually sends 152 mm caliber ammunition to Moscow’s howitzers. It is not certain whether the North Koreans are capable of making a difference, but the fact is that the alliance between the countries has left the field of historical timidity and has been exposed as part of Cold War 2.0.
The rapprochement continues to disrupt U.S. allies in the IndoPacific. This Tuesday, the governments of Japan and South Korea called on Moscow to stop all military contact with Kim, whose regime trains tactical nuclear strikes against Seoul almost every week.
The South Korean government has been particularly vocal in pledging action against actions that threaten its security. It is a message for the planned military exercises between Moscow and Pyongyang, in which China could take part, ignoring that the maneuvers between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will be perceived in the same way by the other side.
Finally, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced that another pariah in the West, Syrian dictator Bashar alAssad, will visit Beijing this week. Putin’s military intervention on his side in the conflict in 2015 allowed him to remain in power amid the civil war that has been ongoing since 2011.
The current global conflict took shape with the rise of China in the 2000s and culminated in Xi’s rise to power in 2013. The leader began several initiatives to convert Beijing’s economic weight into military and political power and was viewed by the US as a rival taken seriously: in 2017, Donald Trump launched his offensive against the Chinese in all possible areas, which was only intensified by Joe Biden.
There will still be two types of stages at the United Nations. The Americans and their allies will be able to step up their rhetoric against the aggressiveness of Russia and, by extension, China and other partners. And the Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky will denounce the invasion of his country live. It will be interesting to see how the Russian media will cover this, as the Kremlin has ordered that the president cannot be reelected to office.
The third field in the game, the promoted teams, will have Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) as the most prominent figure, while the main leader of the group, India’s Narendra Modi, is missing. It is incumbent on the PT member to criticize the lack of representation in the UN Security Council, the only body with power in the organization.
However, his position is challenged by what the USled West calls an alliance with Russia at war, as Brazil condemns the invasion but does not participate in the sanctions regime against Moscow and has adopted it since Jair The Bolsonaro Government (PL) takes a neutral position less neutral than that of India, which can do so because it is now the country most courted by the US and Europe.