Key nations straddle allegiances as America no longer world’s unchallenged superpower: US media

Newly leaked documents have revealed that the United States is no longer the world’s unchallenged superpower, as key emerging powers such as Brazil, Egypt, India, and Pakistan are not inclined to support Washington in its standoff with Moscow and Beijing, the Washington Post reports.

In an article on Saturday, the newspaper wrote that according to the intelligence cited from a series of US secrets leaked online via the Discord messaging platform, emerging nations’ bid to overcome Washington’s confrontation with Moscow and Beijing have put Biden's global agenda at risk.

The article stressed that Brazil, Egypt, India, and Pakistan are unwilling to unequivocally support one side or the other “in an era when America is no longer the world’s unchallenged superpower.”

Developing nations are recalibrating at a moment when America faces potent new competition, as “China projects new economic and military clout and Russia demonstrates its ability to deflect Western pressure,” according to the article, citing Matias Spektor, a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, as saying.

“It’s unclear who will end up in a pole position in 10 years’ time, so they need to diversify their risk and hedge their bets,” Spektor said.

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According to one of the leaked documents, Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, argued in March that her country can “no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States,” the newspaper says.

Pakistan has received billions of dollars in US economic and security aid following 9/11 but now is heavily reliant on Chinese investment and loans.

In an internal memo titled “Pakistan’s Difficult Choices,” Khar stressed that Islamabad should avoid giving the appearance of appeasing the West, and said the instinct to preserve Pakistan’s partnership with the United States would ultimately sacrifice the full benefits of the country’s “real strategic” partnership with China.

Another document, dated February 17, describes Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s consultation with a subordinate on the issue of the anti-Russian resolution of the UN General Assembly.

During the discussion, one of Sharif's aides stated that support for the resolution would interfere with negotiations with Russia on trade and energy issues, and supporting the Western-backed resolution could jeopardize those ties. Pakistan ultimately abstained from voting on the resolution, the report unveils.

This is while key US allies in Europe and East Asia have backed Biden's Ukraine campaign and are providing more weapons while ditching Russian energy, but Washington has faced resistance elsewhere.

South Africa, another emerging power that has recently held a military exercise with Russia, has denied a request by the International Criminal Court to arrest Putin if he should visit during a summit this year and officials there told the US secretary of state they would not be bullied into making decisions that don’t suit them, according to the newspaper.

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“India, likewise, appeared to avoid taking sides between Washington and Moscow,” the article says. According to US intelligence, National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of India, Ajit Doval, expressed New Delhi's readiness to support Moscow on international platforms.

Doval also allegedly noted that India “would not deviate from the principled position it had taken in the past” and would not support the said anti-Russian resolution in the UN General Assembly, the newspaper wrote.

Also, the article notes that Central Asian leaders “are eager to work with whoever offers the most immediate deliverables, which for now is China.”

The document did not clarify the countries, but they probably include nations such as Kazakhstan that are seeking to diminish Russian influence and develop new partnerships in energy and trade, the newspaper says.

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In addition, some officials in the Global South, a term used to describe the parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, are positioning themselves as a diplomatic bridge between the three rivals.

The leaked documents preview Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s proposal to stand up a “world peace bloc” to mediate US and Chinese interests and broker an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, meanwhile, planned to use a renewed alliance of Latin American nations including Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil to secure more power in negotiations with the United States, China, and the European Union, according to another leaked document.

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As Washington Post had previously reported, the repercussions of US tensions with Russia are particularly acute in Egypt, which receives more than $1 billion a year in aid from Washington but has deepened ties with Moscow. Russia is building Egypt’s first nuclear power plant and promising to provide it with military hardware.

The leaked documents show Egypt attempting to navigate the standoff over Ukraine and parry demands for military aid from both Russia and the United States.

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