Iran and Saudi Arabia are hegemonic rivals in the Persian Gulf region.
(As an aside: Russia and China are hegemonic rivals in Central Asia)
Which makes the BRICS "coalition" an interesting geopolitical dalliance, but one which will require a great deal more political evolution on the part of the participants in order to have any lasting substance.
Hegemonic competitions never wait. At best they just get moved into the realm of quiet subterfuge while the players do the coalition Kabuki for the media to lap up in all their sycophantic silliness.
Russia and China were on the cusp of a shooting war more times than China and India in the 1960s.
Xi Jinping in every other regard thinks of himself as a latter day Mao Zedong but is willing to overlook Mao's open hostility to Russia (which was the opening Nixon exploited) to be Putin's BFF?
I'll never say its impossible, but I just don't see that happening.
China is playing up the Russia card for the same reason Nixon went to China--to upset the balance of power with the US.
Never take politicians at their word--and that goes double for Chinese politicians.
Watch what they do and who they do it with.
China is courting Pakistan as well as India. Pakistan and India are as committed a pair of enemies as you are going to find in the world today.
Keep in mind that the world went from a oil supply shock in 1978 to an oil glut in 1986--all because the OPEC countries kept violating their "agreed" production quotas.
The BRICS countries have as many economic reasons to stab the coalition in the back as they do to be loyal to it.
With Russia's economy in contraction, with China's economy only superficially not in contraction thanks to Beijing mucking around in housing and construction yet again, the only real commonality the BRICS countries have is they dislike Joe Biden. This is not the stuff of which winning geopolitical alliances are made.
"Now, it seems like we are in the same critical period as the “horses were drinking water” in the Yangtze River days in the revolutionary era, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites."
"Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of China’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation."
Will Biden have to shut down the Permian Basin for the Saudis to stay with the west and the petro-dollar?
Or is the deal to join the BRICS Coalition done?
That same "coalition" is also courting Iran.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are hegemonic rivals in the Persian Gulf region.
(As an aside: Russia and China are hegemonic rivals in Central Asia)
Which makes the BRICS "coalition" an interesting geopolitical dalliance, but one which will require a great deal more political evolution on the part of the participants in order to have any lasting substance.
"Russia and China are hegemonic rivals"
Yes, but that "competition" can wait for the 1500 re-entry vehicles headed our way.
As far as Iran and the Saudis, perhaps they are reading the tea leaves, or goat bones, or whatever the heck they read over there.
Hegemonic competitions never wait. At best they just get moved into the realm of quiet subterfuge while the players do the coalition Kabuki for the media to lap up in all their sycophantic silliness.
Russia and China were on the cusp of a shooting war more times than China and India in the 1960s.
Xi Jinping in every other regard thinks of himself as a latter day Mao Zedong but is willing to overlook Mao's open hostility to Russia (which was the opening Nixon exploited) to be Putin's BFF?
I'll never say its impossible, but I just don't see that happening.
China is playing up the Russia card for the same reason Nixon went to China--to upset the balance of power with the US.
I hope you are right, but I take them at their word, we would be fools not to.
Never take politicians at their word--and that goes double for Chinese politicians.
Watch what they do and who they do it with.
China is courting Pakistan as well as India. Pakistan and India are as committed a pair of enemies as you are going to find in the world today.
Keep in mind that the world went from a oil supply shock in 1978 to an oil glut in 1986--all because the OPEC countries kept violating their "agreed" production quotas.
The BRICS countries have as many economic reasons to stab the coalition in the back as they do to be loyal to it.
With Russia's economy in contraction, with China's economy only superficially not in contraction thanks to Beijing mucking around in housing and construction yet again, the only real commonality the BRICS countries have is they dislike Joe Biden. This is not the stuff of which winning geopolitical alliances are made.
Not "POLITICIANS" but GENERALS
"The Secret Speech of General Chi Haotian" (2003)
.................
"Now, it seems like we are in the same critical period as the “horses were drinking water” in the Yangtze River days in the revolutionary era, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites."
"Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of China’s century. As war approaches, I am full of hope for our next generation."
For the full speech see: (no registration)
https://jrnyquist.blog/2019/09/11/the-secret-speech-of-general-chi-haotian/#:~:text=The%20Secret%20Speech%20of%20General%20Chi%20Haotian%20In,previously%20unpublished%20defector%20testimony%20on%20Sino-Russian%20military%20plans.