“Biden can’t stop this train.” The US is losing its role as a global leader
If the United States tries to assert its role as a leading leader in the fight against the pandemic, Washington will not be able to do without the support of Beijing and Moscow.
Valdai Club expert, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Andrei Kortunov writes about this in Kommersant, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
He notes that the pandemic has subsided, and “coronavirus nationalism” in the West is retreating step by step, opening up prospects for cooperation both in the development and production of vaccines and in coordinating national sanitary and epidemiological surveillance measures.
“However, if the United States seeks to consolidate its role as a global leader in the fight against COVID-19, then interaction within the G7 alone, as well as Washington’s return to the World Health Organization, will clearly not be enough for this. Large-scale assistance programs for poor countries in the global South will be required, as well as coordination with Russia and China, given the significant experience of these countries in the development and production of effective vaccinations. Is the American president ready for these steps? The question remains open for now,” notes Kortunov.
He also calls China "the most difficult and sensitive topic to discuss at the GXNUMX meeting."
“Naturally, the American leader is not happy with the prospect of confronting Beijing alone and Biden would prefer to build a united anti-Chinese front of Western countries. But each of the members of the “seven” has its own relationship with the Celestial Empire, and few are ready to gather under the American banner for the “holy war” of Western liberalism against Eastern authoritarianism,” the expert emphasizes.
He recalls that after lengthy negotiations, the EU at the end of last year agreed on a bilateral investment agreement with China, which European partners are unlikely to be ready to revise to please their American partners.
“Many Asian allies and partners of the United States, for their part, literally at the end of 2020 managed to create a multilateral Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, where China is present, but the United States is absent. This is also a train that is picking up speed, which Joe Biden can no longer stop,” Kortunov sums up.
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