 |
| "China’s place as a superpower is natural and justified. It is not the Soviet Union," said Blair, who was prime minister from 1997 to 2007. Its allies are likely to be Russia and Iran. Tony Blair, U.K.'s former prime minister in Singapore, on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021. (File photo by=Wei Leng Tay/Bloomberg via Getty Images) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] LONDON: The Ukraine war shows that the West's dominance is coming to an end as China rises to superpower status in partnership with Russia at one of the most significant inflection points in centuries, former British prime minister Tony Blair said, Reuters reported.
The world, Blair said, was at a turning point in history compared with the end of World War II or the collapse of the Soviet Union - but this time the West is clearly not in the ascendant. "We are coming to the end of Western political and economic dominance," Blair said in a lecture entitled After Ukraine, What Lessons Now for Western Leadership? according to a text of the speech to a forum supporting the alliance between the United States and Europe at Ditchley Park west of London. "The world is going to be at least bipolar and possibly multi-polar," Blair said. "The biggest geopolitical change of this century will come from China, not Russia."
The war in Ukraine, Blair said, had clarified that the West could not rely on China "to behave in the way we would consider rational". The West should not let China overtake militarily, he said. Chinese President Xi Jinping has continued supporting Putin and criticized sanctions "abuse" by the West. Putin has forged what he calls a "strategic partnership" with China.
