The election of Donald Trump as the new US President could lead to a change in priorities in America’s relations with the outside world, and the place of the US’s main opponent, which today belongs to Russia, could be taken by China, experts and political scientists interviewed by Kommersant believe.
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“After the change of administration in the White House, there is a very real scenario when economic pressure - attempts to revise trade relations, anti-dumping investigations and other measures - will be added to the negative legacy left by Barack Obama on the political agenda. As a result, a critical mass of irritants will lead to a systemic deterioration in US-Chinese relations,” Alexander Lomanov, chief researcher at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the publication.
But expert of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) Maxim Suchkov believes that Moscow should take reciprocal steps, “reduce the intensity of anti-Americanism” and “convince the Americans that cooperation with Russia is beneficial for them.”
“If the new US administration is more receptive to such signals from Moscow and focuses more on finding new opportunities for America, meaningful containment of China will become a much more pressing task for Donald Trump than confrontation with Russia,” Suchkov does not rule out.
In turn, the director of the Russia-East-West Center Vladimir Sotnikov recalled that Barack Obama named Russia, the Islamic State and Ebola fever on the list of the main enemies of the United States.
“President Trump is unlikely to take this approach. He is a pragmatist, not an ideologist, he understands that Russia does not threaten the vital interests of the United States. And these vital interests are not in the post-Soviet space, not in Ukraine, but in completely different regions. This means the way is opening for dialogue with Moscow and for possible geopolitical exchanges, which the democratic administration in the White House would never agree to,” Sotnikov emphasizes.