Three developments this week underscore that the growing multipolarity in the world order is inexorably loosening up established alliances that provided underpinnings previously for the United States to preserve its global hegemony through the past century. Given the magnitude of the domestic crisis in the US, it is not going to be able to reverse …
Continue reading “Medium and small states in the time of multipolarity”
Iranian oil tanker Clavel crossing the Gibraltar stretch heading for Venezuela, May 20, 2020 Escorted by the Venezuelan navy and air force, an Iranian oil tanker named Fortune has entered that country’s waters on Sunday, amidst intense speculation whether the US would interfere with the delivery. The US has imposed oil sanctions against Venezuela and …
Continue reading “Iran surges in Venezuela in defiance of US sanctions”
The optics of the Russian oil leviathan Rosneft’s decision to sell its subsidiary Rosneft Trading SA and sell all its assets in Venezuela after the US Treasury sanctioned its trading arm two weeks ago as part of Washington’s regime change project to oust president Nicolás Maduro, may not look good to the uninformed outside observer. It may …
Continue reading “A Russian firewall for Venezuela against US sanctions”
(Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) received Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Moscow, 5th December 2018) The US project on ‘regime change’ in Venezuela has crash-landed. Far-fetched assumptions that have no basis in the ground realities are withering away. The core assumption was that the existing regime in Caracas is lacking legitimacy. But the failure of …
Continue reading “Venezuela explores peace talks. Will US allow it?”
(Government supporters throng streets if Caracas after the failure of the US-backed coup attempt, Venezuela, May 1, 2019) The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked last Thursday in Moscow that no contacts between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump are expected at the G20 summit in Japan on June 28-29. “An encounter is …
(Chinese PLA personnel pose with members of Venezuela’s National Bolivarian Armed Forces, March 29, 2019) The reported arrival of Chinese military personnel in Venezuela last weekend is undoubtedly a major event in world politics. Unlike Russia, which has a history of force projection abroad, this is an extremely rare Chinese move. Although vital Chinese interests …
Continue reading “China’s PLA troops in Venezuela is game changer”
(An airplane with the Russian flag was seen at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, March 24, 2019.) The Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova acknowledged in Moscow on Tuesday that Russian “specialists” are indeed in Venezuela within the ambit of a 2001 military-technical cooperation agreement with Caracas. Zakharova underscored that Russia’s bilateral military cooperation …
Continue reading “Russia throws down the gauntlet to US on Venezuela”
(Russia test-fires enhanced version of RS-24 Yars thermonuclear intercontinental missile, 6th February, 2019.) The US president’s annual State of the Union address traditionally focuses on domestic issues but it also throws some light on the foreign policy priorities. President Trump’s speech on Tuesday adhered to the pattern and if anything, the portions on foreign policy …
Continue reading “‘America First’ means nuclear superiority”
(Eye of the storm: Venezuela’s famed Orinoco Oil Belt) Russia is doing the right thing by switching tack from strident ‘anti-American’ rhetoric to focus on tamping down the tensions over Venezuela. China had counseled such an approach right from the outset when the crisis erupted last week. On day one of a looming US-Venezuelan standoff …
