Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated that the world is on the verge of international geopolitical change, pointing out that the era of Western hegemony is coming to an end and moving towards multipolarity.
“The biggest geopolitical changes of this century will be driven by China, not Russia,” Blair said in a lecture he gave at a symposium hosted by the British-American Ditchli Foundation.
He added: “We are approaching the end of Western hegemony in politics and economics, and the world will become at least bipolar or possibly multipolar.”
He continued: “For the first time in modern history, the East can be on an equal footing with the West.”
He added that China “is the second superpower in the world, and its economic potential and degree of participation in the global economy is higher than that of Russia.”
He believed that “China has caught up with the United States in many technological areas and threatens to surpass the United States in some of them.”
He pointed out that “the Chinese leadership is behaving more and more aggressively and does not hide the fact that it treats the West with contempt, draws closer to Russia and wants to finally solve the Taiwan problem.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that China will try to take over Taiwan by force anytime soon, but we can no longer base our policy on the belief that this won’t happen,” he said.
He pointed out that “Russia and possibly Iran will definitely become China’s allies in the near future.”
He called the differences in the positions of the G20 countries on the Ukrainian issue a warning to the West.
He called for building relations with China on the basis of the principle of “power plus exchange.”
He stressed that “the West must increase military spending and remain strong enough to confront China in any future scenario, while maintaining relations with Beijing, acting pragmatically, non-aggressively and showing a willingness to mutual respect.”
Source: “TASS”