Although China, which became Russia’s ally and signed a 31-article document with it, to strengthen the economic and military partnership between the two sides, and supports Moscow in the face of American expansion in Europe and Asia, it took advantage of the Ukrainian war to open channels of negotiations with the United States.
To make greater gains at the same time, Beijing has pledged to continue trade relations with Russia normally, and is also considering buying stakes in Russian energy and commodity companies such as Gazprom gas and Rusal International for aluminum production, Bloomberg News reported.
And “Bloomberg” said that Beijing “is in talks with its state-owned companies, including China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petrochemical Corporation and China Aluminum Corporation, about any potential opportunities to invest in Russian companies or assets. Chinese and Russian energy companies have also started talks that are being conducted in strict secrecy.” It may not necessarily lead to deals.”
Historic gains for Germany
Germany also reaped the benefits of the Ukrainian war, as it put aside all the contentious issues that would face the new government coalition, and the divergence of positions and orientations on Russia between the German chancellor and head of the Socialist Party Olaf Scholz, and his foreign minister and leader of the Green Party, Annalina Birbock, both of whom became opponents. Moscow and Vladimir Putin, according to analysts.
In a historic gain from the war, the German government announced a few days ago the creation of a special fund for investments in the German army worth 100 billion euros, raising the annual defense budget to 2 percent of GDP, and completely modernizing the army and its equipment.
According to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the war threatens Germany like other European countries, and it has become necessary for everyone to prepare for the worst, or for the third world war, whose possibilities the Russians are talking about.
Lindner added that “the billions of euros to be invested in the German army, will make it the strongest in Europe in order to protect our allies.”
Stick to Russian gas
Despite Western sanctions on Russian oil and the Nord Stream pipeline between Berlin and Moscow, the German chancellor stuck to energy imports from Russia.
Scholz stressed that Europe deliberately excluded Russian energy supplies from sanctions; Because that “will reflect heavily on the economy of European countries.”
“European energy supplies for heat production, mobility, electricity and industry cannot be guaranteed in any other way at this time,” Schulz said in a statement on Tuesday.
And political analyst Nabil Rashwan considered that stopping Russian gas imports to Germany would represent a major challenge for Berlin.
Rashwan said in an interview with “Sky News Arabia” that “German gas reserves have reached small proportions in this world, estimated at about 30% of their consumption, which makes them cling to Russian gas until searching for other alternatives.”
He pointed out that Russian gas divided Europe, because it imports 40 percent of its gas needs from Russia, and there are countries that do not support imposing an embargo with the aim of depriving Moscow of basic revenues for it, because those countries are likely to be affected as well.
And he added that Germany’s real gain now is the adoption of a budget to modernize its army, noting that “since the end of the Cold War, the German army continued to shrink and suffered from a lack of equipment and equipment.”
Turkey profits
Turkey is one of the countries that may benefit from the Ukrainian war, as it is a member of “NATO” that provides military support to Kiev, and at the same time it has good relations with Russia.
According to observers, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not miss such an opportunity for rapprochement with the United States on the one hand, and to settle his differences with Russia, at least on the Syrian file, on the other.
Despite selling Bayraktar TB2 drones to Ukraine, which made gains against the Russian army, Turkey sticks to buying Russian oil, and imports 70 percent of its wheat from Russia.
Turkish Energy Minister Alp Arslan Bayraktar announced, on Tuesday, that Ankara will continue to buy Russian oil and hopes to lift sanctions on Iran, which will bring additional supplies to meet global energy demand.
Bayraktar added on the sidelines of the “Cerawick Energy” conference that Turkey relies on Russia for 45 percent of its demand for natural gas, 17 percent for oil and 40 percent for gasoline, according to Turkish reports.
Regarding Turkey’s position on the Ukrainian crisis, political analyst Mehmet Hamid said, “Erdogan has maintained good relations with both Russia and Ukraine over the years, and he cannot favor one of the two sides now, because this will have serious security and economic consequences for Ankara.” .
In an interview with “Sky News Arabia”, Hamed said, “Russia is not a substitute for Ankara’s relations with the West, and the West is not a substitute for Turkey’s relations with Russia. While Turkey supplied Ukraine with unmanned combat aircraft, it bought the S-400 missile defense systems.” From Russia, even though it is a member of NATO.
Ukrainian war victims
According to a report issued by the Japanese financial services group Nomura Holdings, some analysts believe that 3 Asian countries will pay an expensive bill as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war: India, the Philippines and Thailand, as they will suffer the largest losses in Asia due to the continued rise in oil prices.
The report stressed that the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war in Asia will be significantly felt on commodities, especially fuel and food.
The rise in oil prices will also lead to rising inflation and higher transportation and utilities costs.
It is likely that the excessive dependence on oil imports will widen the current account deficit and undermine the currencies of the three countries.