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Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

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61–70 of 209 posts

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#61
post #35

The next few weeks/months are going to be very interesting. Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its new direction. Japan/EU seems at edge with the war in Ukraine. China is making new moves in the global financial scene. The US has accumulated significant political debt in the recent years. They have significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony. In this recent conflict, the cost burdened Europe and th…

The US is the largest oil producer in the world, one of the largest producers of food, one of the top innovators, has relatively healthy demographics, is surround by allies (one of which produces oil and fertilizer), and has the most dominant military on the planet. Your outlook is significantly more gloomy than reality

While this is all true, "cashing in" on any of those advantages is not something that can be done peacefully, so perhaps a gloomy outlook is warranted.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#62
post #33

Anyone who's been paying attention I believe would agree that our foreign policy around Ukraine has come at a huge cost not only to us financially and economically, but also to our foreign relations. Under this conflict our relations with China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia -- these are important partners -- have degraded. Having watched that unfold, this isn't a surprise to me.

Well. China relationship is strained for many reasons, Ukraine and their general support for Russia conducting the war is just icing on the cake. This has strained Chinese relations with multiple countries though (UK, EU members, etc.). India I’m not seeing much in the way of change. The US at least didn’t really do anything different with India buying Russian oil. US relations with South American companies are varia…

There's no massive support for the US interventionism. There's massive solidarity towards ukrainian refugees. Other than that we want the conflict to end asap and we don't see the US as a peacemaking side

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#63
post #56
post #35

The next few weeks/months are going to be very interesting. Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its new direction. Japan/EU seems at edge with the war in Ukraine. China is making new moves in the global financial scene. The US has accumulated significant political debt in the recent years. They have significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony. In this recent conflict, the cost burdened Europe and th…

Can you describe why you think the US has "significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony."

FATCA, protectionism hidden behind AML/KYC, money printing at the expense of the other countries' reserves, sanctions or the threat of sanctions, political requests for IMF/WB funding, etc... Really, it's a shitshow and the US is rarely the good guy here.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#64

Anyone who's been paying attention I believe would agree that our foreign policy around Ukraine has come at a huge cost not only to us financially and economically, but also to our foreign relations. Under this conflict our relations with China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia -- these are important partners -- have degraded. Having watched that unfold, this isn't a surprise to me.

The fact that there's a major land war in Ukraine, which the US did not start and had no power to prevent, has come at a huge cost. This is true. Given that Ukraine patently was not just going to roll over, and even if the US hadn't supported them, much of Europe absolutely would. I think it's petty plain the war would still be raging fiercely anyway. Most likely Russia would be on the skirts of or in Kyiv and Odessa by now, with a horrible bloody partisan conflict reminiscent of Vietnam or Afghanistan, or a massively scaled up version of the Chechnya war raging throughout the country.

Do you relish the prospect of Russian troops on the borders of Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania? I don't.

Meanwhile US relations with Europe would be at the lowest level since WW2, it would be seen as an utter abandonment and betrayal of our shared values, including US treaty guarantees on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. America's allies across the world would know for a fact the US could not be relied upon to support them. Russia would know this. Taiwan would know this. China and North Korea would know this.

They would also realise that this situation might only last as long as the current administration. There are some in the world that would see this as a golden opportunity.

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#65

Anyone who's been paying attention I believe would agree that our foreign policy around Ukraine has come at a huge cost not only to us financially and economically, but also to our foreign relations. Under this conflict our relations with China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia -- these are important partners -- have degraded. Having watched that unfold, this isn't a surprise to me.

No it has not. We're looking at two new members to NATO, a rise in European unity coupled with an increase in defense spending, and the destruction of Russia's army.

Relations with China were already decaying, things seem normal with India, and Saudi Arabia is the result of Trump and Co kissing MBSs butt while in power. The Saudis are much more reliant on the US than the other way around

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#67
post #35

The next few weeks/months are going to be very interesting. Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its new direction. Japan/EU seems at edge with the war in Ukraine. China is making new moves in the global financial scene. The US has accumulated significant political debt in the recent years. They have significantly abused their position with the US dollars hegemony. In this recent conflict, the cost burdened Europe and th…

The US is the largest oil producer in the world, one of the largest producers of food, one of the top innovators, has relatively healthy demographics, is surround by allies (one of which produces oil and fertilizer), and has the most dominant military on the planet. Your outlook is significantly more gloomy than reality

[flagged]

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is the largest oil producer in the world, one of the largest producers of food, one of the top innovators, has relatively healthy demographics, is surround by allies (one of which produces oil and fertilizer), and has the most dominant military on the planet. Your outlook is significantly more gloomy than reality

While this is all true, "cashing in" on any of those advantages is not something that can be done peacefully, so perhaps a gloomy outlook is warranted.

I don't understand? The US can disrupt food/oil/financial markets/innovation more than any other planet on earth. All of these can be flexed peacefully

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#69
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well. China relationship is strained for many reasons, Ukraine and their general support for Russia conducting the war is just icing on the cake. This has strained Chinese relations with multiple countries though (UK, EU members, etc.). India I’m not seeing much in the way of change. The US at least didn’t really do anything different with India buying Russian oil. US relations with South American companies are varia…

On the contrary this looks like the beginning of the end of USA global hegemony. The dollar relevance is degrading and while the west is siding closer with the USA, the rest of the world is distancing itself from them. > On the other hand, the US has shored up massive support from all of Europe ex Belarus, Japan Regarding Japan this very news article contradicts you somehow. > Finland joins NATO tomorrow. Finland is…

> Its joining NATO only makes NATO less secure as a whole, rather than strenghtening it.

Why is that?

Re: Japan Breaks with U.S. Allies, Buys Russian Oil at Prices Above Cap

#70
post #48
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mindlessly belligerent, yes. "Any reason" is a bit of a stretch — I doubt Putin has a dice with country names on it — but given how dumb it was to invade Ukraine, it's not unreasonable to assume he's dumb enough to try Japan.

[flagged]

It seems you can't really handle OP being right and have resorted to what-about-ism.

So it seems you have conceded the argument and agree that Russia is mindlessly belligerent and now are saying that's fine because you think x-y-z are also belligerent? (Wrong but eh, not the subject of discussion).

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