“Leaked Intelligence Assessments Reveal Challenges to Biden’s Global Agenda amid America-China Rivalry”

America and China

US President Joe Biden’s global agenda faces major challenges, as major developing countries seek to avoid escalating confrontation between the United States, Russia and China, and in some cases exploit this rivalry for their own gain, according to leaked classified US intelligence assessments.

Among a slew of leaked American secrets, the documents provide a rare glimpse into the private calculations made by major emerging powers, including India, Brazil, Pakistan and Egypt, as they try to override allegiances in an era when America is no longer the world’s undisputed superpower.

The leaked, previously undisclosed, intelligence findings offer new insights into the obstacles Biden faces in securing global support for his efforts to reject the spread of authoritarianism, contain Russian hostility beyond its borders, and counter China’s growing global expansion as regional powers try to remain on the sidelines or remain neutral. .

“Developing countries are resetting the balance just as America faces powerful new competition from China and Russia, and it’s not clear who will end up in center stage in 10 years’ time,” said Matthias Spector, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. They need to mitigate risks and hedge their bets.”

According to the report published by the “Washington Post”, Pakistan, which received billions of dollars in US economic and security aid after September 11, now relies heavily on Chinese investments and loans.

According to one of the leaked documents, Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s Minister of State for External Affairs, argued in March that her country was “no longer trying to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States.” In an internal memo titled “Pakistan’s Tough Choices,” Khar warned that Islamabad must avoid appearing to appease the West, and said Pakistan’s instinct to maintain Pakistan’s partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of what it saw as the country’s “true strategic” partnership with China.

Another document, dated February 17, also reveals Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s deliberations with one of his subordinates regarding the vote at the United Nations as Pakistan, fearful of angering Russia, abstained along with 32 other countries.

Likewise, India seemed to avoid taking sides with Washington or Moscow during a February 22 conversation between India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Kumar Doval and his Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev, as indicated by one of the leaked documents.

She says Doval assured Patrushev of India’s support for Russia in multilateral settings, and at the G-20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, the row over Ukraine led to a failure to forge a consensus on broader global challenges.

The leaked document shows that Doval also indicated India’s resistance to pressure to support a Western-backed UN resolution on Ukraine, saying that his country “will not deviate from the principled position it has taken in the past.”

Sources familiar with India’s position say it does not support Russia’s war, pointing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s condemnation of Putin personally, but has long relied on Moscow’s support at the United Nations and has no choice but to maintain energy and economic ties with Russia.

And unlike the Non-Aligned Movement that flourished during the Cold War, experts say there is little in the way of a common ideology today, and no overt loyalty among nations seeking to navigate an ocean of power competition.

Meanwhile, Central Asian countries are “looking to exploit” this competition and take advantage of the growing interest from the United States, China and Europe as they seek to reduce their dependence on Russia, according to an assessment released on February 17.

The document did not specify those countries, but it likely includes countries such as Kazakhstan that seek to reduce Russian influence and develop new partnerships in energy and trade.

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