Abandoning Allies and Making Deals

"For many countries outside the West, it has become a viable option  to forge strategic agreements with China rather than the United States."

"China and Russia, together with other like-minded states, are seeking to reduce Western -- and particularly U.S. -- global influence."

"At the same time, uncertainty has grown over how the United States will prioritize its resources in the future."

"This gives regional powers greater room for manoeuvre, enabling them to choose between the United States and China or to strike a balance between the two." 

"The strategic importance of the Arctic is rising as the conflict between Russia and the West intensifies, and the growing security and  strategic focus on the Arctic by the United States will further accelerate these developments." 

Danish Defense Intelligence Service report

Greenland became a flashpoint in US-Danish relations earlier this year.

Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg/Getty Images 

"The goal of these Russian cyber and disinformation attacks is clear: It is to divide society, stir up mistrust, provoke rejection, and weaken confidence in democratic institutions."

"This targeted manipulation of information is one of a wide range of activities by Russia aimed at undermining confidence in democratic institutions and processes in Germany."

German foreign ministry spokesperson Martin Giese 

 

"Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Sunday that China has always regarded Saudi Arabia as a priority in its Middle East diplomacy and an important partner in its global diplomatic strategy, and is willing to work with Saudi Arabia to elevate bilateral ties to new heights."

"Wang Yi, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while co-chairing the Fifth Meeting of the Political Sub-committee of the China-Saudi Arabia High-level Joint Committee in Riyadh with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud."

"Wang said that Saudi Arabia is an important member of the Arab and Islamic worlds and an independent force in the process of multipolarization."

"In recent years, under the strategic guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as well as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, exchanges and cooperation across all fields between the two countries have progressed in a sound and steady manner, he said, adding China-Saudi relations have increasingly gone beyond the bilateral dimension, taking on growing strategic significance and global influence."

China Daily 

Washington Institute for Near-East Policy

 

Deliberately, the Trump administration has put its allies on notice of the withdrawal of the United States from its historical, post-WWII position as protector of Western democratic interests globally. Threats that surfaced with the potential to destabilize the security of Europe and allies further abroad brought the U.S. front and centre in its role as global policeman. The objective was always defence of democracy in the global order and with it the central position of capitalism, the engine that brought prosperity to Western economies.

 

When the people of the great United States of America decided to bring a dedicated businessman whose focus was always 'getting a deal' and winning concessions by coercive means to strike that deal whether it be real estate or tariffs, diplomatic tradition between allies was stood on its head. Allies could be casually dumped but the ultimate goal of mercantilism must always be pursued with the passion of amassing ever greater wealth, and that achievement came at a cost to former allies, so be it.

 

In pursuit of that wealth and the prestige that accompanied it, the Trump administration was more than willing to jettison its relations with Europe and its North American partners, and if any took umbrage at side-issues such as imperialist territorial gain, that was their problem. In surrendering the position of leader of global alliances, the United States forfeited the global esteem it had earned. Agitated, discomfited allies, realizing their new vulnerability huddled for support between themselves envisioning the plight of Ukraine under Moscow's military heel becoming their own.

 

Vladimir Putin attending a meeting with Xi Jinping during the Russian delegation’s visit to China in 2024. Photo: Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation

 

And so a report issued in Denmark asserts the reality facing Europe: that the United States is asserting its will, threatening military force against friend and foe alike. At the very time that China and Russia, taking advantage of the monumental split they see between the U.S. and its allies, recognize the opportunity to commit to their own, covert schemes to further diminish Western global dominion, particularly that of the United States. 

 

 Denmark is particularly offended as a NATO and European Union member as well as an ally of the United States to be facing a situation where President Donald Trump has eyed the military advantages as well as mineral deposits to be had in taking Greenland, nominally part of Denmark, at a time when both Russia and China are themselves preparing to influence and take possession of mineral deposits in the Arctic, and Russia has not been shy about building military installations in an assertion of sovereignty in disputed polar territories. 

 

Rising tensions in the resource-rich Arctic  The U.S. is monitoring military cooperation between Russia and China in the resource-rich Arctic. ABC News 

"Several articles published in September 2025 revived alarmist positions on threats to Canada’s sovereignty. Their authors paint a bleak picture of a Canada unable to control its Arctic territory and facing aggressive China and Russia, which have great ambitions for its territory."

"These grim scenarios include Russian icebreakers sailing through the waters of the Arctic archipelago, Chinese bases built without the knowledge of Canadian authorities, and even an attack on the Canadian Arctic by the Russian military."

"The problem is that this bleak picture is based on highly theoretical scenarios and irrelevant observations. Worse still, it probably misses the real issues, which lie both in the need for the Canadian government to ensure a governmental presence in the North and to counter any challenges to its sovereignty in the Beaufort Sea and the Northwest Passage by the United States."

Network for Strategic Alliances, Department of National Defense of Canada 

Northwest Passage, historical sea passage of the North American continent. It represents centuries of effort to find a route westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean through the Arctic Archipelago of what became Canada.