Politics /
Portsmouth-Moscow: the War of the Parallel Summit
The D-Day ceremony in Portsmouth was attended by some of the most important leaders in the Western world, with the meeting between Putin and Xi Jinping in Moscow taking place on
the same day. The meeting presents us with a portrait of the world once again divided between East and West.
This is not a return to the Cold War but something worse and more obscure. Back then the division established a “world order”, while the current scenario has produced “global disorder”.
The order was born with the end of an era of conflictual destabilization which had begun with the Crimean War and reached its climax with the Second Word War (Richard Haas,
Foreign Affairs)
The current disorder on the other hand originates from the end of an era of conflictual stability which developed after the Second World War as a result of the bipolar Soviet-American Empire.
The Portsmouth narrative
There was no reason not to invite the leaders of China and Russia to the Portsmouth ceremony, seeing as not only did the two Nations participate in the war against Nazi-Fascism and Japanese imperialism (often forgotten), but they also paid the highest price during the struggle for global liberation: the Soviet Union suffered 25 million deaths and China between 20 and 35 million (including the second Sino-Japanese War which merged into the Second World War).
The absence of the two leaders in Portsmouth was made even more baffling by the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, given that Germany fought on the other side. This resulted in a distorted portrayal of the memory of the pages of that heroic war: seeming as if the world was liberated by America, Britain (and its colonies) and the many resistance groups scattered around Europe. It is a narrative which rewrites history to the benefit of some and to the detriment of others.
Beyond that we are left with the current disorder, generated by the supposed claim, following the collapse of the Soviet territory, of a world under United States hegemony. A claim which clashes with reality, that is with the resistance of those countries which refuse their role as mere clients, which produces the current state of international chaos.
Putin, Xi and the unipolar world
Among the Countries opposing such hegemony, the main ones happen to be Russia and China, which during the Moscow meeting also opposed the vision of a unipolar world. The summit is of interest because it consecrates the Russia-China strategic alliance, as stated by the title of a Washington Post article: “Xi Putin Visit: a 21st Century Alliance.” Such an alliance might seem a natural development, however it is not so, given that America’s first ideologists were hoping to recruit Russia in their crusade against China (La Stampa).
Putin refused the offer, knowing all too well that once China had been drastically resized, Moscow would have been at the mercy of the US. Putin knows that Russia, without a safe economic foothold, would instantly collapse despite its military apparatus. In this regard it should be remembered that China was essential to Russia’s survival when Washington and its allies began strangling Russia with sanctions following the revolt (or coup d’etat) in Ukraine’s Euromaidan massacre.
Today Russia is vital to China, with Beijing only able to carry out its commercial war against the USA thanks to Moscow’s military front. Despite possessing atomic bomb technology, it is not yet equipped with a military which could sustain outright war against Washington, an option which is on the table according to a certain “Dr. Strangelove” (The Nation).
America First and the Global Gendarme
Together Russia and China can sustain the new US challenge to the world which was relaunched over the past months when “America First,” conceived by Trump’s ideologists against the global aggressiveness of the neoconservatives, was embraced by the latter, distorting its original aims and adapting it to a relaunch of a unipolar US (the Gendarme of the world).
Such a distortion transforms America First, no longer appearing as a program of economic and geopolitical development but as a global existential challenge a clash of civilizations (see Washington Examiner).
The Moscow summit responded to the challenge with moderation, as is evident from the joint press conference where the two leaders discussed cooperation at all levels, specifically their various fields of interest (manufacturing, technology, energy, etc), without ever mentioning the military industry.
The door to a global agreement therefore remains open, in the hope that Trump – who is more pragmatic than his ideologists and who aspires to a new world order designed together with Russia and China (USA Today) – will be able to find room for manoeuvering which will allow him to remain open to such a prospect.
The various agreements signed in Moscow included one which pledges to move away from using the US dollar in Russia-China trade which will instead be carried out in their national currencies. At the moment this does not put the US currency at risk in international exchanges. Nevertheless, we shall have to see what changes lie ahead.
