This century belongs to Asia

A major economic and strategic change is taking place in the East, which will bring lasting consequences. Recently, a World Economic Forum note highlighted a significant fact: In 2020, Asian economies will exceed those of the rest of the world.

To understand the significance of this statement, we need to think about what China and India, the two developing giants of Asia, represented in the world economy up to thirty or forty years ago. But Beijing and New Delhi are not alone.

I have just spent a few days in Seoul, where the South Korean government has announced that it will seek to abandon the status of a non-independent country within the World Trade Organization (OBT), a sign of significant progress achieved after a disastrous war. South Korea, once a developing Asian <x1);”, has become an industrial leader today.

Increasing Military Expenses

This economic progress in the Asian region is no longer surprising. We've had time to get used to it, and today we see that Asia is going through all the predictions. But it's at the level of strategic rivalry that Asia has now entered into a context of great uncertainty, because it's right here, in the area we now call “Indo-peaceman”, where the relationship of the powers of the 20th century between the U.S. and China is on a global level. In this show, everyone plays a role, including France, which seeks to affirm a parallel but different strategy from Washington's indolence.

One aspect not to be overlooked is that military expenditures in the region are growing faster than in the Middle East. The reasons for friction, on the other hand, are not lacking: from the militarized islands in the South China Sea to Taiwan's fate, from the border between China and India to the islands discussed between Beijing and Tokyo, from Kim Jong's bomb in North Korea to American, Russian, and Chinese nuclear projects.

Vladimir Putin recently announced that Russia is working with China to implement a missile launching system for Beijing, a field in which Moscow is at the forefront. The system will strengthen Chinese protections against interccstrian and submarine-thodox ballistic missiles, of course American. It is the fifth demonstration that the Sino-Ruse coalition is more stable and strong than most would think.

No removal plan

The United States, in turn, would like to establish in Asia a kind of missile banned so far from the middle-range nuclear forces (Inf), a treaty recently criticised by the Trump administration, which stressed the need to deploy these missiles to preserve a strategic advantage over China and North Korea. The price of this development, on Washington's plans, must be paid by Allieds. So South Korea, having renegotiated its contribution because of the presence of 28,500 American soldiers in its territory (plus 8 per cent, for $890m), was invited by Washington to contribute to the protection of the Indo-Peacemaker area as a whole, to the excess of $5 billion a year.

Tension supplies in the region are increasing, and no one is able to propose, or even think, a plan to stop escalation and ensure regional security. Our century will probably be the “azitic century”. It remains to be seen if it will also be peaceful.

OBS World.al