Rarely is a handshake the same as a slap in the face. But when the national security advisers of Saudi Arabia and Iran shook hands in Beijing last Friday, it delivered a stinging blow in Washington DC that echoed in the world’s capitals. 

As the United States stays bogged down in its efforts to degrade Russia as a world power, at the expense of Western treasure and Ukrainian lives, not to speak of global growth and deprivation in swathes of Africa, China, identified by the Americans as their systemic rival, has won a decisive round in West Asia in its ongoing contestation of US hegemony of the global order.

South Asia, with the exception of India, was perhaps the most severely impacted region in the world by the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war as the region’s domestic contradictions leading to leadership changes and inequities, and even debt-inducing foreign policies continued to play out and further complicate the adverse impacts.

It was not only the economy or the social landscape of countries like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, but their fragile polities faced even more devastating outcomes. Moreover, their smart gaming and balancing acts between the two competing regional super powers in China and India were severely hampered during the year as the Chinese BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) and its debt-trap and “wolf warrior” diplomacy not only came under stress but created a strategic rethink in several countries.

Apart from the expected third term for President Xi Jinping and the installation of his protégé Li Qiang as Premier of the State Council, the ongoing ‘two sessions’ signals an intensification of China’s “decoupling” process with the United States, the strengthening of the Communist Party’s domination of the State, especially its finance and S&T establishments, and a boost to China’s armed forces with a rising defense allocation despite a slowing economy.

Australia is in a hurry to reconfigure the contours of its foreign policy. The government of Anthony Albanese is working for a thaw in Canberra’s ties with China which have deteriorated significantly in recent years. Australia’s trade minister Don Farrell met with his Chinese counterpart virtually last month in an attempt to stabilize bilateral ties that have been strained by China’s aggressive trade and political moves and Australia’s strong pushback.

Non-resolution of Palestinian issue is always on the platter to mobilise the Arab street. Hence the Chinese, so very dependent for their energy security on GCC countries and for their strategic BRI labyrinthine calculations, want to maintain at least a semblance of stability by engaging from Tehran to Tel Aviv, writes Amb. Anil Trigunayat, a former Indian Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta.