Power Shifts: Today's Most Critical Diplomatic Moves

a new military alliance has just been forged pakistan saudi arabia and turkey have signed a formal defense pact in our last briefing on diplomatic power plays we talked about shifting alliances this isn't a shift this is a tectonic plate moving it redraws the security map of the entire middle east creating a new power block outside of traditional western orbits the world you thought you knew yesterday is not the world that exists today here are the other moves you need to watch ukraine just locked in a ten year security deal with australia a decade long commitment that's not just support that's a strategic marriage pulling canberra deeper into european security than ever before it's a clear

signal that the lines of this conflict are no longer regional they are global the european union just backed its political support with cash a nearly €3,000,000,000 payment was just approved for kyiv under the ukraine facility brussels is putting its money where its mouth is funding ukraine's survival and sovereignty while the fighting continues this happened during the un general assembly a very public display of financial resolve and the economic war is escalating 700 new sanctions were imposed globally in just the last few weeks the eu is now targeting russian disinformation agents by name like kasenia fedorova trying to cut out the cancer of information warfare at the same time the united states just unleashed what it calls the toughest sanctions in history against iran aiming directly at its mineral wealth

and military modernization across the world the signals are getting louder the us navy sent a p-8a surveillance aircraft through the taiwan strait this wasn't a routine flight it was a message sent right before a planned meeting between xi jinping and donald trump a very deliberate reminder of american military presence in china's most sensitive waterway amid all this there's a whisper of diplomacy new trilateral talks between ukraine russia and the united states are set to begin this month but nobody in any capital i talk to is holding their breath the positions are entrenched the trust is gone expectations are rock bottom now let's go back to that new defense pact pakistan saudi arabia and turkey you

need to understand what this really is this is not another talking shop this is a strategic realignment built on three pillars shared religion shared industrial ambition and a shared desire for autonomy from the united states it connects three of the most powerful non arab sunni majority militaries in the world for decades security in the gulf was simple it was underwritten by the united states military this pact is a declaration that those days are ending one think tank the iiss called it emblematic of shifting defense cooperation that's an understatement this is the foundation of a new independent security architecture it challenges the very premise of the gulf cooperation council it forces rivals like iran to recalculate

it tells washington that its key partners are now hedging their bets in a major way this isn't about buying american jets anymore this is about building their own together it's a quiet revolt against the old order then there is the sanctions war forget the diplomatic language this is economic attrition and it just went into overdrive the us move against iran is the centerpiece calling them the toughest sanctions in history isn't just rhetoric by targeting iran's mineral wealth washington is trying to turn off the last tap of hard currency funding the state the goal is no longer just containment of the nuclear program the goal is to cripple iran's ability to fund its proxies and modernize

its military it is an attempt to break the regime's economic spine but here is the unintended consequence this level of pressure doesn't always create compliance it creates desperation and it pushes countries like iran directly into the arms of america's rivals it's no coincidence that russia's foreign ministry just released a statement celebrating the coincidence in russia's and china's approaches on the situation around iran they see an opening as the us squeezes beijing and moscow offer a lifeline an alternative economic and diplomatic system free from the dollar free from western rules they are not just undermining the sanctions they are using the sanctions as a tool to fragment the global financial system and peel away a regional

power for good these are not isolated events they are connected threads in a single story the old unipolar world is over it's being actively dismantled new alliances are being forged in steel not just on paper economic warfare is now a primary tool of statecraft and great power competition is playing out in every domain from the taiwan strait to the persian gulf to the fields of ukraine the world hasn't just become more complicated it has become a world of competing blocs and hardened rivalries the board has been reset