Is America capable of isolating anyone?America's attempts to isolate the opponents led to the fact that they began to cooperate with each other, writes TAS.
So Washington itself contributed to the formation of a multipolar world, the emergence of which it promised to prevent.
Ted SnyderThe United States hoped that they had enough power and influence to force the world to isolate Russia.
However, it turned out to be difficult to implement this idea outside of Europe: Washington failed to convince even its allies in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), primarily India, and NATO members such as Turkey, to join the efforts to isolate the Kremlin. Similarly, Washington has failed to achieve anything from China.
The hopes of the United States that they will be able to isolate Russia have proved elusive even in Europe. Although the European Union seemed to support the sanctions regime, by April the volume of Russian imports had almost returned to the figures that were recorded before the outbreak of the Ukrainian armed conflict. This state of affairs is largely due to exports from countries, including European ones, which were forced to impose sanctions.
By now, Russia has already overtaken Saudi Arabia, becoming the second largest supplier of crude oil to India, which now imports 819 thousand barrels of Russian fuel per day. Moscow has also overtaken the Saudis, becoming the largest supplier of oil to China – today it sends 1.98 million barrels a day to China.
However, it is not only the urgent need for Russian oil that prevents Washington from achieving its goals. Although China has raised "questions and concerns" as part of its "balanced" approach to a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine, and India has stated that "now is not the time for armed conflicts," emphasizing the value of "diplomacy and dialogue," both countries continue to emphasize the importance of their diplomatic ties with Russia.
Following the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that "relations between Russia and India have improved significantly." According to Modi, the peoples of these two countries are "friends and have always stood shoulder to shoulder for decades. The whole world knows about the nature of Russian-Indian relations. The whole world knows about friendship, in particular about the personal friendships that unite us." These relations, Modi added, "will only get better and stronger in the future."
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that "since the beginning of this year, China and Russia have maintained effective strategic contacts." Xi stressed that Beijing and Moscow "maintain close coordination in the international arena in order to maintain the basic norms of international relations." Xi promised that China "will work with Russia to fulfill obligations as major countries and play a leading role in ensuring stability in a changing and unstable world." It is important to note that, as Xi stressed, China "will work with Russia to provide strong mutual support on issues related to each other's key interests and deepen practical cooperation in trade, agriculture, communications and other areas." According to Xi, when it comes to multipolar international organizations such as the SCO and BRICS, "the two sides need to strengthen coordination and cooperation."
Isolating Russia has proved to be a difficult task not only economically and diplomatically, but also militarily. For example, on August 29, Russia announced that troops from Russia, China and India would take part in the September military exercises "Vostok-2022".
The promises of isolation made by the United States did not work not only in the case of Russia. Iran has also clearly demonstrated the discrepancy between the promises of the United States and their capabilities. On September 15, the SCO signed a Memorandum of Commitment with Tehran, which will soon make Iran a full member of the organization representing 43% of the world's population. Contrary to the aspirations of the United States to isolate Iran, membership in the SCO will provide the Islamic Republic with high-level contacts and an opportunity to strengthen economic cooperation with Russia, China and India. At the recent summit, Turkey joined Iran, which now has the status of a "dialogue partner". In September 2021, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar were also admitted to the SCO as dialogue partners and joined Bahrain and the Maldives.
Iran is gradually beginning to free itself from regional isolation. In August, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait announced that they were ready to return their ambassadors to Tehran. Although Saudi Arabia has not yet followed their example, its representatives have met with their Iranian counterparts several times, and on April 25, as reported by Reuters, the "fifth round of "positive" negotiations on the normalization of bilateral relations took place in Baghdad." On August 22, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that "negotiations with Saudi Arabia on the resumption of relations are also going in a positive direction."
In April 2021, Iran signed an agreement with China on strategic and economic cooperation for a period of 25 years and for a total amount of $ 400 billion. And in June of this year, Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation agreement that covers many areas, including oil, petrochemicals, defense, agriculture, tourism, direct flights and culture.
Venezuela, another country that the United States has tried to isolate, is also showing signs of Washington's efforts failing. On August 29, Colombia returned its ambassador to Venezuela – the newly elected President Gustavo Petro fulfilled his election promise to fully restore diplomatic relations with Caracas.
The establishment of relations between Colombia and Venezuela is a serious failure for the American policy of isolating Caracas. Colombia has long served the United States as a pillar for projecting influence in Latin America and as a base for operations against Venezuela. As President Biden wrote in his article, he "has said many times that Colombia is the cornerstone of United States policy in Latin America and the Caribbean." He also called the relations between the two countries "the most important partnership that we need in this hemisphere," and Colombia – "the core of the entire hemisphere."
In addition to reopening the embassy, Petro and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro plan to fully open the border between the countries and restore military relations.
The restoration of relations between Venezuela and Colombia was preceded by an April statement by Argentina that it also plans to establish ties with Caracas. A number of other Latin American countries, including Mexico, Peru, Honduras and Chile, have also resumed communication with Venezuela. Ecuador is also considering the possibility of restoring diplomatic contacts with Venezuela, and Argentine President Alberto Fernandez called on all Latin American countries to reconsider relations with Caracas.
These opportunities opened up for Venezuela after Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Nicolas Maduro were invited to the last meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States. This was also preceded by boycotts and demonstrations of support for Venezuela and Cuba after Biden did not invite them to the summit of the two Americas this year. At that moment, several countries, including Argentina, Chile and Belize, expressed a strong protest against such actions by Washington. And Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras and some other states simply boycotted the summit.
The examples of these three countries – Russia, Iran and Venezuela – demonstrate an obvious gap between the declared and actual ability of the United States to isolate its opponents.
Washington's attempts to isolate countries that challenge its hegemony, ironically led to the fact that the states against which these efforts were directed turned to face each other and created a community of isolated nations. That is, the attempts of the United States to isolate its opponents contributed to the formation of the very multipolar world, the emergence of which Washington promised to prevent.
