What Trump’s Triangulation Means for Asia
Mike Watson
March 8, 2025The imploding relationship between Ukraine and the United States has upended global politics. Ukrainian forces are still slogging it out against Russian invaders without U.S. intelligence and weapons deliveries, even as President Trump tries to halt Moscow's attacks with threats of tariffs and new sanctions. The Europeans are trying to cobble together alternatives to American assistance, and even some of Donald Trump's greatest admirers, like Nigel Farage and Giorgia Meloni, are aghast at American actions.
This is all part of breaking up the current version of the American-led international order, which many Trump supporters think is long overdue. As Marco Rubio said before the meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, "the big story of the 21st century is going to be U.S.-Chinese relations," and "it’s not a good outcome for America or for Europe or the world" if "the Russians are permanently a junior partner to China." In Asia, which will ultimately feel the effects of this change as much as Europe, each country’s reaction depends on its view of American leadership.
China also wants to tear down the international order, but they want to replace it with a Chinese model rather than an American update. For Beijing, war in Eastern Europe is not so bad if the Europeans don’t rouse themselves. Watching America’s partners expend American munitions on Russian targets without replacing them is far better than staring down those same weapons across the Taiwan Strait.
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https://freebeacon.com/columns/what-trumps-triangulation-means-for-asia/
