Trump's China reset shakes up global geopolitics
U.S. President Donald Trump's most consequential legacy may be his strategic pivot to confront China. For decades, successive American administrations pursued a policy of integrating China into the global economy, believing that economic liberalization would gradually lead to political reform. That gamble failed. Trump, during his first term, was the first U.S. president to openly acknowledge this failure and recalibrate policy accordingly.
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Nikkei Asia
34 minutes ago
- Nikkei Asia
Analysis: Anti-US summit in Tianjin to follow Trump-Putin Alaska meeting
Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.
Japan Times
8 hours ago
- Japan Times
Putin is about to outplay Trump again in Alaska
Ukrainian and European leaders are worried Donald Trump will get played for a second time when and if he meets his Russian counterpart in a meeting tentatively scheduled to take place in Alaska on Friday, and they're right to be nervous. Indeed, if Trump wants to emerge from the talks a master negotiator rather than a pushover, his smartest move would have been to postpone the summit until it's better prepared. Trump isn't wrong to try sitting down with U.S. foes and rivals, even where more conventional leaders would avoid the risk. But hastily arranged encounters rarely result as hoped and everything about the visit by Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow that produced the Alaska invitation last week screams confusion. With so much fog on the American side, it's best to understand what Friday's scheduled meeting is really about from the point of view of Vladimir Putin. To him, this is a windfall he can use both to defuse Trump's threat of sanctions and further his war effort. That's what happened earlier this year, when the former KGB handler made good use of Trump's obvious desperation to secure a peace deal in Ukraine and an economic reset with Moscow. No matter how much Trump was willing to give away, including sanctions relief, Putin saw just one thing: a strategic opportunity. With the U.S. no longer willing to help arm Ukraine's defense, except — as eventually persuaded — when paid, Putin did the only logical thing: He upped the pace of his war effort, both on land and in the air, to take advantage of Kyiv's weakening position. Eventually, even Trump had to acknowledge he was getting strung along. Faced with an Aug. 8 deadline before the U.S. imposed financial consequences on Russia for its intransigence, Putin's task when Witkoff arrived in Moscow was once again to do just enough to stall any U.S. action, while making sure any concrete outcomes would strengthen Russia's position. So far, that's going swimmingly. He got something for nothing. The first priority was to keep Volodymyr Zelenskyy out of the room, rather than have the three-way meeting that Trump — to his credit — was suggesting. The Ukrainian leader's presence would require actual negotiation, making Russian disinterest hard to hide. By insisting on a bilateral sit down with Trump, Putin can seek to propose terms this U.S. administration might accept, but he knows Ukraine can't. That would once again make Zelenskyy the person Trump blames for standing in the way of peace, taking the pressure off Putin. The second goal was to find a location for the meeting that would demonstrate, both to Russians and to leaders around the world, that Putin is no longer a pariah avoiding travel for fear of arrest under a war crimes warrant the International Criminal Court issued against him in 2023. Indeed, this would be Putin's first visit to the U.S. (outside trips to the United Nations in New York) since 2007, before his invasion of Georgia the following year. A summit in Alaska — a U.S. state that once belonged to the Russian Empire — would send a strong signal of Putin's rehabilitation, while also pointing to the Kremlin's long historical reach as a great power. Trump's invitation alone is a win for the Kremlin. If the summit also serves to delay U.S. sanctions or produces a "peace' plan that sows dissension between Ukraine and its allies, all the more so. But any genuine path to a lasting end to hostilities will need a lot more pressure, both financial and military, as well as preparation. If an account in Germany's Bild magazine is correct, Putin and his officials ran rings around Witkoff when they met the U.S. real estate-developer-turned-diplomat last week, leaving him confused about what was on offer. Whatever Witkoff may have misunderstood, it was enough for the U.S. president to say land swaps were on the table, when they aren't. What the Kremlin appears ready to consider is that Ukraine should hand over parts of the Donbas that Russia hasn't yet been able to conquer, in exchange for a ceasefire. So, not a land swap, but land handed over in perpetuity in exchange for a truce that's probably temporary. According to Bild, the Russian "offer' may also have required Ukraine to first withdraw its troops from much larger areas of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces that Russia also claims to have annexed but has yet been unable to occupy. The Kremlin may also be willing to offer a truce in its air war to ward off sanctions, but that's less of a concession than it seems. Unlike two years ago, when that was a one-way fight, Ukraine's newly built long-range drones and missiles are doing increasing damage to Russian energy and military assets. On Monday, they hit a factory making guidance systems for Russia's missiles near the city of Nizhny Novgorod, about 440 kilometers (270 miles) east of Moscow. A truce might at this point be welcomed by both sides. Ukrainians know they'll to have to cede control of territory to end Putin's invasion. But they have in mind the kinds of concessions made to the Josef Stalin in Germany at the end of World War II. He secured control over the eastern half of that country for the Soviet Union, but West Germany retained its sovereign claim over the east and — eventually — got it back. Just as important is that after a brief attempt at seizing all of Berlin, the Kremlin left West Germany to prosper in peace. There's no indication Putin wants that kind of deal. It would do nothing to further his actual goals in going to war, which were to secure control over a de-militarized Ukraine as well as U.S. acceptance of a Russian sphere of influence in Europe, uncontested by NATO. Putin never hides this. It's what he means when he says he's happy to talk about a ceasefire, just as soon as the "root causes' of the war are addressed. There will be a time and place for a Trump-Putin summit. But it's unlikely to be this week in Alaska. Marc Champion is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
Yomiuri Shimbun
9 hours ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
TICAD Draft Outlines African Development Strategies;Japanese Technologies to Have Key Role in Cooperation
Leaders of Japan and African countries aim to support economic growth in Africa through private-sector initiatives using Japan's cutting-edge technologies, according to a draft document to be adopted at the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9) to be held on Aug. 20-22 in Yokohama. The draft document, the Yokohama Declaration, obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun, also states the importance of the 'rule of law' for sustainable growth on the continent. TICAD 9 will be cohosted by the Japanese government, the United Nations, the African Union Commission and others, and will be chaired by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. TICAD 8 was held in Tunisia in 2022, and this will be the first time for the conference to be held in Japan since 2019. The draft proposes cooperation measures in three key areas — economy, peace and stability, and society — aimed at strengthening relations between Japan and Africa, where population growth is expected to continue and economic growth is anticipated. In the field of economy, the draft proposes the establishment of 'Africa-Japan Innovation Hubs' to promote digitization and technological cooperation. Japan will support Africa's economic growth by leveraging its strengths in robotics and artificial intelligence. The draft also calls for the establishment of a governance system aimed at realizing 'safe, secure and trustworthy AI.' In regard to procurement of development funds in African countries, the draft emphasizes the need for reforms, such as improving transparency. 'The high cost of capital, largely due to inadequate credit ratings … [is] diverting Africa's resources away from financing development,' the draft says. The background to this is that China has provided huge loans to African countries for the purpose of securing resources, resulting in many of these countries falling into debt and facing the risk of default. The draft also says, 'Increasing trade protectionism is limiting Africa's access to global markets.' This appears to be in response to tariff measures taken by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The draft says, 'We aim to accelerate efforts to … integrate African countries into global supply chains through a free, open, and fair trade and investment environment.' In the field of peace and stability, the draft emphasizes that 'democracy and the rule of law are foundational pillars.' It also states the view that strategic cooperation between Japan and the African Union, which conducts peacekeeping activities in Somalia, should be strengthened to improve security in Africa. In the field of society, the draft mentions plans to promote the manufacturing of medicines and vaccines in Africa. It also proposes the use of Japanese satellite data for drought and flood countermeasures.
