"This is a warning shot": what Trump's peace initiative on Russia and Ukraine means for China
Kyiv • UNN
For the Trump administration, the main global problem is not Russia and its war in Ukraine, but China.
US President Donald Trump's peace initiative to end the Russian-Ukrainian war is a "warning shot" at official Beijing. This is according to Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the independent Center for Policy Research in New Delhi, UNN reports with reference to asia.nikkei.com.
Details
According to the scholar, the deeper reason why Trump is persistently pushing his initiative to end the war is as follows: Russia is no longer a "priority enemy" for the United States.
American policymakers are increasingly focused on countering China's growing power, and the Trump administration views Russia as a declining economic power whose war in Ukraine has become an expensive distraction for Washington, diverting US attention and resources from the much more important struggle with Beijing.
At the same time, the situation gives China a strategic advantage: it weakens the US deterrent influence in Asia, complicates alliance coordination, and stretches limited US military-industrial capabilities, the expert believes.
The Trump administration's peace plan is a tough attempt to align Western strategy with long-term geopolitical realities, first and foremost, the need to shift focus to the Indo-Pacific region, the strategic center of gravity of the world.
The proposed course may cause concern, but it reflects a fundamental truth: the era of unlimited American power is over. And Washington's main calculation is obvious: it is China, not Russia, that is the defining challenge of the 21st century.