Finland joins NATO in face off against Russia
April 04, 2023
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Ian Bremmer takes a look at the week's top stories in geopolitics.
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Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
With Finland officially joining NATO, what does it mean for Russia?
Well, this is exactly what Putin did not want to have happen, right? Ostensibly, the reason for his invasion into Ukraine was because Ukraine was moving towards NATO and that was unacceptable. Of course, now you've got 800 additional miles of border with very well-defended Finland, part of NATO as of today, facing off against Russia. This is just one of many examples, but a very important, not just symbolic, one of how Putin made a very serious misjudgment in the way the West would respond to that invasion.
Is there a global impact on US foreign relations with Trump's indictment?
Not immediately, but for those of you that thought there was a reprieve in the level of polarization between left and right, Democrats, Republicans, as well as the relentless coverage of former President Donald Trump, it is now back. Remember, he was thrown off of Twitter and Facebook. And Fox News wasn't going to cover him. The Wall Street Journal was going negative. Now he's back. Now the GOP is all aligned with Trump in criticizing this indictment, saying it's politicized. Almost every Republican agrees and a majority of Independents do, even a decent minority of Democrats, you put that all together, that means it's much more likely Trump becomes the nominee, and that, of course, has a view in how Canadians and others around the world look at the United States, and the potential durability of commitments in foreign policy are presently being made. It's very important.
How will the Tsai-McCarthy meeting affect US-Taiwan-China relations?
Well, obviously less than when former speaker Pelosi went to Taiwan last year for a couple reasons. One, it's not in Taiwan. McCarthy backed off of his trip when Tsai actually called and said, "Hey, we don't want you coming to Taiwan." Remember when Pelosi came, there were significant economic sanctions that came from China, that just hurts Taiwan. They don't need that again. They don't need the escalation of tensions around the Taiwan Straits, and also the fact that it's opposition party. Clearly the Chinese understand this is not being driven by Biden, by his allies. I still expect that there's going to be significant performative negativity from the Chinese government in direct response to the meeting.
The crew for the first lunar trip in 50 years was just announced. What's the significance?
Well, it's nice to be going around the moon again, and it's also nice that the United States and the Canadians working together, three Americans, one Canadian, and the cool thing is if something goes wrong in the mission, the Canadian gets eaten. That's the agreement, right? It's kind of nice they're doing that.
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