Existential enemy for US is not Russia, but China — Bogdan Bezpalko

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist Bogdan Bezpalko commented on the Russia-US talks and their possible impact on the global situation.

“The Trump-Putin talks will generally concern all global hot spots where there are some contradictions between Russia and the United States. These are the Middle East, the Ukrainian conflict, Southeast Asia, the Arctic, maybe even Africa and South America, for example, Venezuela, where Russia is still present. But it is obvious that if the talks are successful for both sides, and if, accordingly, Russia is able to convince the United States to make concessions, and the United States gets some compromise solutions from Russia, this may affect the North and South Caucasus region in such a way that pressure on Iran will increase, respectively.

In other words, this region will come into the closer attention of American politicians. The United States will increase its close attention to the Caspian region. For a number of reasons. Firstly, this is the region where Iran, one of the main rivals of the United States, is located. And as a matter of fact, there are not only large deposits of hydrocarbons, which are always of interest, but there is also the key to Central Asia. And Central Asia is a field for rivalry between the United States and China.

China is now the main competitor and rival for the United States, almost an existential one. Not Russia, but China. And the Caucasus region, the North and South, as well as the Central Asian region, and the Caspian region in general, will be considered precisely in the light of rivalry and competition with China,” Bezpalko said.

According to him, there is an acute rivalry between Turkey and Iran, which may develop into an acute phase of their confrontation.

“Turkey is a state that may well challenge Iran at least at a certain level, may exert pressure on it. This is noticeable because the Iranian leadership is extremely negative about all the talk about Turkey and Azerbaijan organizing a corridor through southern Armenia, the so-called ‘Zangezur’ or Syunik corridor. This will mean the threat of an invasion by Iran on this territory, as well as on the territory of Azerbaijan, that is, in fact, the beginning of a war.

Therefore, here the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan can be considered simply as a trigger by major geopolitical players in order, for example, to provoke Iran or to isolate it even more, that is, to completely isolate it, including from Armenia, for example,” the expert said.

According to Bogdan Bezpalko, Armenia should not expect a conflict this year due to the fact that there are no circumstances provoking it.

“The trigger is like a match. A match is triggered in the powder cellar. If there is no powder cellar, the match will not affect anything. And if there are contradictions, if they are long-standing, deep-rooted, burdened by a large amount of spilled blood, then naturally in this case, a conflict will be ignited. I hope that there will be no war in the South Caucasus this year,” the expert concluded.