Russia's Aggression: From Ukraine to Asia
HONG KONG, June 12, 2014 — "Russia is the only state that does not fear China," according to Dmitri Trenin, the first Russian director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Briefing the Asia Society Hong Kong Center on Russia's foreign policy, Trenin suggested that the Ukraine crisis was a significant factor in shaping this. He pointed out that global power is now divided in a triangular manner with three strategic players — namely, the USA, Russia, and China — and that room for cooperation exists even in the face of rising tensions. The crisis over Ukraine has ended the 25-year-long period of prevailing cooperation between Russia and the United States, with a new period of heightened competition — even confrontation — upon us.
Faced with mounting pressure from the United States and its allies, Trenin noted, Moscow ought to pay more attention to relations with non-Western actors, beginning with Asia. He predicted that Russia would place greater strategic values on Asia in terms of economic and foreign policies in order to balance the power of her rivals.
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