As ‘New Cold War’ intensifies, West woos Africa and ASEAN region
Having lost out to China considerably in its efforts to expand its influence in the global South and the ASEAN region, the West is giving every indication of making-up for lost time. While the US is in a stepped-up drive to cultivate the African continent, the EU is intensifying efforts to strengthen its economic ties with the ASEAN region. Thus is fresh ground being broken in the ‘New Cold War’.
Following a US-African leaders’ summit held on December 15 in Washington, which was helmed by US President Joe Biden, a US administration statement elaborating on some of the basic goals of the forum said that it was aimed at: ‘Deepening longstanding areas of cooperation while revitalizing and expanding our partnership to better meet the shared challenges and opportunities of our era.’ A vision statement issued by the delegations announced US administration plans, ‘to invest at least $ 55 billion in Africa over the next three years, working closely with Congress.’
Meanwhile, the EU had pledged $ 10 billion in investments for the South-east Asian region during a summit it held with ASEAN in Brussels on December 14. The forum was described as the first full summit to be hosted by the EU with the ASEAN countries. An EU statement issued at the end of the summit, among other things, said: ‘We continue to re-affirm, as for all nations, the need to respect the sovereignty, political independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine.’
The EU statement could be described as being more explicit than the US communique in underscoring the ‘New Cold War’ underpinnings in these economic initiatives of the West aimed at expanding and bolstering the latter’s influence globally. The West is evidently compelled to constantly ‘looking over its shoulder’ at the Chinese, and to a lesser extent, Russian moves to strengthen their power and influence in the global South and the ASEAN region.
By virtue of the fact that ASEAN is the only economically vibrant region in the world currently, it cannot be bracketed with the South and be seen as homogeneous with the latter in any analyses of world economic realities. However, China is one of ASEAN’s principal trading partners and this factor, among others, compels the West to be wary of Chinese moves in the region. In other words, it is a ‘New Cold War’ frontier for the West.
Moreover, China’s perceived power games in the South China Sea and Taiwan, for example, compel the West to see the relevant areas of South-east Asia as bristling with ‘New Cold War’ politics. Blunting Chinese influence in the region becomes a number one priority for the West. Hence the EU’s stepped-up interest in ASEAN.
However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the issues growing out of it are continuing to be matters of grave concern for the West and the above EU statement is a pointer to this. Comparatively, it is China that constitutes the graver threat to Western interests in the ASEAN region and outside it than Russia but the latter and China are the best of allies and as long as this is so and as long as China desists from decrying the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the West is likely to consider it to be in its best interests to weaken China’s and Russia’s moves to bolster their influence worldwide in general and in the South in particular.
Stepped-up economic assistance to those regions that are seen by it as vulnerable to Chinese and Russian influence is one of the most effective means, from the viewpoint of the West, to make gains in the ‘New Cold War’, which is being waged mainly on the economic front. Ideology is no long longer a factor to contend with in this global confrontation. The fact that China and Russia are adherents of economic pragmatism accounts in the main for this relative absence of ideology in this new East-West stand-off.
The Biden administration on taking office put better and vibrant ties with ASEAN high on its foreign policy agenda. It had no choice but to take this course on perceiving the undimmed economic strength of the region. However, the indications are that the US would be placing equal importance to economically resuscitating the African continent and the recent US-African leaders’ summit is one proof of this. Here too, China has been stealing a march over the West in expanding its economic presence on the continent, through its ‘Belt and Road’ initiative, for instance, and the US would be losing out in this battle for influence on the continent by not outdoing the Chinese on this score.
An important outcome of the US-Africa summit was a pledge by the US to assist Africa in gaining membership of the G20, the world’s most powerful group of states. This measure is as important as the financial aid pledged to Africa. The US said in support of this initiative in the vision statement that came at the end of the forum that being ‘home to over a billion people, Africa must have a more prominent voice in global conversations’. Besides, the US went on record as stating that it would be working towards the achievement of Permanent Member status in the UN Security Council for countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Through these pronouncements the US could be considered as having upstaged China, Russia and their closest allies in efforts to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the global South. Winning the promised positions for the South would prove arduous and long drawn out, presuming that the US is in earnest when it makes such pledges, but the fact is that it would be outdoing its rivals in the efforts of the foremost powers to capture the good will and support of the world’s polities and publics.
Accordingly, the ‘New Cold War’ could be described as taking on fresh and interesting dimensions. Politics and economics are apparently beginning to play as important a role as military power in shaping the contours of the international system and ordinary people everywhere are likely to hope that it would remain that way.
