(Observer Network News).
In the past year, the Ukraine crisis has dragged on, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has resurfaced, and regional security hotspots have emerged one after another, and the world has experienced complex security challenges. In the midst of turmoil, some foreign media have found that the balance of various regions is tilting away from the Western values dominated by the United States, which makes 2023 a year that makes Western countries feel "uncomfortable".
The BBC said on December 30 that over the past 12 months, the United States, Europe and other major "democracies" have suffered a series of setbacks in the international political arena, and although these setbacks are not "catastrophic", they fully demonstrate that the balance of power is shifting away from the values of the United States and the West, which have dominated for many years, and "in many ways, the winds are in the opposite direction of Western interests."
The article takes the longest length and talks about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has been delayed since February 2022. According to the BBC, despite the support of the West, the war is not going well for Ukraine, "which means that NATO and the European Union, which have already provided tens of billions of dollars in financial support for the war in Ukraine and its economy, are also in a bad position".
The report mentioned that at this time last year, NATO had high hopes for Ukraine, believing that with Western military aid and training, the Ukrainian army could consolidate its autumn offensive. But for fear of provoking Russia, it took a long time for the West to decide to deliver the main battle tanks Ukraine wanted, and by the time the tanks were sent to the front line and officially deployed, Russia had built "the largest and most extensive fortification in modern history."
According to the report, now "for Ukraine and Western countries, almost all indicators are moving in the wrong direction", and the Ukrainian army has no hope: not only is there a serious shortage of ammunition and personnel, but the US Congress has also blocked the White House from passing 60 billion US dollars in military aid, and Hungary has blocked the EU's 50 billion euro aid package.
The BBC also mentioned that the EU's successive rounds of sanctions should have paralyzed the Russian economy and forced it to turn things around, "but Russia has proven to be surprisingly resilient to these sanctions, procuring many products through countries such as China and Kazakhstan." On the other hand, while the West has largely moved away from its dependence on Russian oil and gas, Russia has also found other customers willing to buy, albeit with a lower rate.
The report admits that while Russia's "special military operation" has been criticized and blamed by many Western countries, it has not been the case for the rest of the world. Many countries believe that this is a European problem, while others blame NATO, believing that NATO's eastward expansion provoked Russia. Over the past year, Putin has visited Kyrgyzstan, China, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, all of which were "red carpet welcomed" and invited to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa online.
On December 29, local time, in Lviv, Ukraine, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict continued, a school was attacked by missiles, and the icon of St. Mary was hung on the damaged wall. **Visual China.
Another "setback" that the West has to say is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which heated up sharply on October 7. According to the BBC, the war has not only diverted global attention from NATO ally Ukraine, but more importantly, in the eyes of many Muslims and other people around the world, the "protection" of Israel by the United States and Britain at the United Nations seems to have made them "complicit" in the destruction of Palestinian Gaza, which has led to an increase in Russia's influence in the Middle East.
Frank Gardner, a BBC security correspondent who wrote the summary, recalled that at a recent summit in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, Arab ministers told him that the West had double standards. "They said to me, 'Your ** is a hypocrite.' They asked me why you refuse to cease fire there and expect us to condemn Russia for killing civilians in Ukraine, they asked me”
The risk of a Palestinian-Israeli conflict has spread to the southern Red Sea, affecting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, and there is constant military friction between the U.S. military and organizations that the U.S. considers "Iranians." Although Iran has been designated as a hostile threat by Western countries, the country has positioned itself as a defender of the Palestinian cause and has benefited greatly from the conflict by forging a closer alliance with Russia, according to the BBC.
In addition, the West has faced setbacks in other regions. The BBC mentions that there have been military coups in the Sahel region of West Africa, and European troops stationed in the region have been expelled and replaced by mercenaries from Russia. Anti-French sentiment in the former French colonies of Mali, Burkina Faso and Central Africa continued to rise, followed by the ouster of pro-Western Niger in July. This month, the last French troops in Niger have been evacuated, leaving only 600 American troops. At the same time, South Africa, once seen as an ally of the West, has been holding joint naval exercises with Russia and China.
This article is an exclusive manuscript of the Observer.com, and it is not allowed to be unauthorized and shall not be allowed.