It\u2019s no coincidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin chose St Petersburg, the former imperial city founded by Tsar Peter the Great, to sign Russia\u2019s new naval doctrine. It was also not without good reason that he praised Peter for making Russia a great maritime power and increasing its standing in the world. Moscow, just like Beijing, has decided to pay back Washington\u2019s diplomatic offensive in the same coin. That is precisely why the new Russian naval doctrine casts the United States as its main rival as it spells out its global ambitions for crucial areas such as the Arctic and the Black Sea. And so we have another cold war on our hands.
\nLet\u2019s not forget that just last week Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a rare two-hour phone call with US President Joe Biden, warned in very clear terms that America\u2019s flirting with Taiwan amounted to \u201cplaying with fire\u201d. Yet US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn\u2019t yet ruled out spending a night in Taiwan during her ongoing Tour of Asia. On top of all the tariff and trade wars that these two countries have indulged in over the last few years, and the trauma they caused to the international financial markets, there couldn\u2019t be a better way of turning up the temperature in this particular cold war as well.
\nIf you look closely at the antics of some of the people leading some of the world\u2019s most powerful countries, you\u2019d think they\u2019ve forgotten that the international economy is on the brink of yet another recession and much of the world is struggling with food shortages, even famines, as they try to find their footing in the post-Covid world. Clearly, nothing will improve for anybody, especially the working classes of emerging markets that power global trade and commerce, with one more cold war between the world\u2019s biggest power brokers. A quick, cautious de-escalation is urgently advised, though not even remotely expected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s no coincidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin chose St Petersburg, the former imperial city founded by Tsar Peter the Great, to sign Russia\u2019s new naval doctrine. It was also not without good reason that he praised Peter for making Russia a great maritime power and increasing its standing in the world. Moscow, just like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9952,9953],"class_list":{"0":"post-275197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorial","7":"tag-cold-wars","8":"tag-galore"},"yoast_head":"\n