Ian Bremmer on Modi & Trump

Ian Bremmer's perspective on what's happening in geopolitics:

What are the takeaways from President Trump's visit to India?

No trade deal, in part because Modi is less popular and he's less willing to focus on economic liberalization. It's about nationalism right now. Hard to get that done. But the India US defense relationship continues to get more robust. In part, those are concerns about China and Russia.

Is Iran the new focal point of coronavirus?

It's still overwhelmingly China, is where the cases are coming from. But I'm personally very concerned about Iran. They clearly have no sense of how much this has expanded, of their ability to control their borders, much more porous, much weaker state. And as a consequence, I think the likelihood this hits pandemic status over the course of the next few days is actually pretty high.

What's going on in Malaysia?

Almost 95 years old, Prime Minister Mahathir, resigns because of all the infighting in his coalition and then comes back, is appointed by the king. He matters. He's like Bernie Sanders, plus another voter at this point. My god, he makes a 78-year-old look like a kid. That's the way Malaysia is running. It's all about him. It's less about the people.

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GZERO

Listen: On this episode of the GZERO World Podcast, while the Gaza war rages on with no end in sight, Ian Bremmer and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman discuss how it could end, who is standing in the way, and what comes next. It may seem premature to talk about a resolution to this conflict, but Friedman argues that it is more important now than ever to map out a viable endgame. "Either we're going to go into 2024 with some really new ideas,” Friedman tells Ian, “or we're going back to 1947 with some really new weapons."