Two meetings in China’s capital, Beijing, which involved the three leaders who have the greatest economic and military power in the world today, have not delivered definitive results to at least reduce the potential for serious military conflict. Neither have those meetings unblocked the Strait of Hormuz to ease the pressure on the price of oil and its impact on the global economy.
At least from the statements made after the separate meetings—between the United States and China, and Russia and China—there was sufficient understanding and acknowledgement that solutions are needed to reset the course of the 21st century to avoid an all-encompassing war.
In the instance of the US-China summit, for the most significant corporate leaders of America, trade was reported to be high on the agenda. However, no new trade agreements were announced, and there was no indication of an end to Donald Trump’s tariff’s war.
US President Trump has claimed that China intends to purchase 200 aircraft from American manufacturers and that Beijing will buy American agricultural products. However, China has not confirmed those purported deals. Understandably, though, solid agreements between and amongst states take quite a number of meetings before conclusions are arrived at.
Critically, while China and the US agree that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to facilitate the unhindered flow of 20 per cent of the world’s oil, no agreement on that was reached.
One definitive thing said by China President XI Jinping was the warning he gave to President Trump that Taiwan was the “most important issue in China-US relations and that if mishandled, the two nations could collide or even come into conflict.” In response, President Trump has urged Taiwan against “seeking independence and the US is not interested to travel 9,500 miles to fight a war.”
It has also been reported that President Trump is yet to sign off on a US$11 billion sale of arms to Taiwan.
In the instance of the China-Russia meeting, media reports claim that over 20 agreements were signed, with a reported 20 others to be signed. Those agreements range across energy, transport and international cooperation. Most significant is the signing of a document by the two leaders calling for a “multi-polar world order to form a new type of international relations, and this is in the context of unilateral and hegemonic countercurrents running rampant.”
The reality now for the three powers, the US being regarded as the only superpower, is first the recognition that constant conflict cannot be left to ferment. In this respect, nothing was reported about Russia’s intention to take and keep portions of Ukraine and how the war is to be ended.
China, with significant military power, a growing technologically advanced economy and politically stable under President XI, is not looking to war but will not back down from a challenge.
Russia, perhaps the most vulnerable militarily and economically of the three, finds comfort in its close association with China, depicted in the summit with President XI.
Notwithstanding the stated intentions, there was no announced immediate effort to end the major wars in Europe and the Middle East, in which collectively, an estimated 140,000 people have been killed, with a further 8,000 missing in Gaza and 90,000 missing in Russia/Ukraine.
