By David Sole
Much attention has been paid to the initiation of peace talks between the US and Russia that began in Saudi Arabia on February 18. The various issues around the Ukraine war were front and center. Also receiving much attention was the exclusion of the United Kingdom, the European Union and even Ukraine’s president Zelensky from the negotiations.
The main goal of the Trump initiative to talk to the Russian Federation is not just to end the Ukraine war and improve US-Russia relations. It is something more profoundly disturbing. The Trump regime, representing the entire Wall Street/Pentagon ruling class, is exploring whether it can split Russia away from its powerful alliance with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The isolation and destruction of socialist China is the number one goal of US imperialism.
This was also the goal in the 1970s when the US maneuvered to weaken the socialist camp by exploiting the Sino-Soviet split. Ideological differences between China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), both worker (socialist) states, had intensified from the late 1950s. The disagreements and tensions grew between China and Russia to the point where the Chinese turned from an ideological debate over “revisionism” to denunciations of the Soviet Union as “social imperialist,” “capitalist” and even “fascist.”
In 1972 U.S. President Richard Nixon visited China and by 1978 the U.S. established diplomatic relations with the PRC. The U.S. successfully exploited the Sino-Soviet split with repercussions around the world detrimental to the many struggles for socialism and national liberation of the day.
The current talks, initiated by Trump, extend beyond just the Ukraine war. Trump, no doubt, is prepared to tempt the Russian side with an end to economic sanctions and other financial enticements as well as peace in Ukraine.
But it is not the 1970s. Russia and China are in a broader alliance that includes numerous other nations, all who are constantly confronted by U.S. imperialism’s demand for world hegemony. Russia, furthermore, has survived the most severe Western sanctions and militarily succeeded in crushing the U.S./NATO backed proxy war in Ukraine.
China has also come a long way since the 1970s. Although it has used some capitalist economic tools, China still has a vigorous and dynamic socialist economic base. Its economy, especially in technology, is flourishing.
Both capitalist Russia and socialist China are also deeply committed to the expansion of the BRICS+ world economic bloc. BRICS is a challenge to U.S. imperialism’s domination of world trade and is a particular target of Donald Trump’s ire.
It is unlikely that Trump can offer enough to derail these world developments. It is also possible that the future rounds of negotiations that will follow the Riyadh talks may break down when Trump finds he cannot get major concessions from the Russian Federation. Russia is not likely to be taken advantage of again as they were in the fake promises of the Minsk I and Minsk II accords.
President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia have stayed in close contact. They had a virtual meeting on the day after Trump’s inauguration. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bonn, Germany on February 17, one day prior to the Riyadh talks. The two top officials met again in Johannesburg, South Africa following the U.S.-Russia meeting. They announced a visit to Moscow by China’s Foreign Minister in the near future. This close collaboration between the two great powers should stand as a bulwark against any attempt to divide them.
Be the first to comment