Iran & Russia pledge to cut US dollar from global trade, strengthen China alliance

In a significant example of growing Eurasian integration, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran, signed a $40 billion energy cooperation agreement, and pledged to strengthen their economic and military alliance with China. Moscow and Tehran also called to drop the US dollar and use local currencies for trade.

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Sources

• “Dollar must be removed from global transactions,” Office of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

• “Iran and Russia’s Gazprom sign primary deal for energy cooperation,” Reuters

• “Iran’s Rasht-Astara Railway To Provide The Key Link In The INSTC,” Silk Road Briefing

• “Iran, Russia, China Hold Joint Naval Drill Amid Growing Ties,” RFE/RL

• “Key points of meeting with the President of Russia,” Office of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

• “Syria’s territorial integrity is crucial and a military attack on Syria is harmful to Turkey and the region,”

• “Key points of meeting with the President of Turkey,” Office of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

• “Fifth Turkish bank starts accepting Russia’s Mir cards,” TASS

• “Russian banks plan to issue co-badged Mir-UnionPay cards due to sanctions,” TASS

• “The US & West always seek to undermine countries’ independence,” Office of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

• “Today the world is on the threshold of a new world order,” Office of Iran’s Ali Khamenei

Passage from Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard” (emphasis added):

Finally, some possible contingencies involving future political alignments should also be briefly noted, subject to fuller discussion in pertinent chapters. In the past, international affairs were largely dominated by contests among individual states for regional domination. Henceforth, the United States may have to determine how to cope with regional coalitions that seek to push America out of Eurasia, thereby threatening America’s status as a global power. However, whether any such coalitions do or do not arise to challenge American primacy will in fact depend to a very large degree on how effectively the United States responds to the major dilemmas identified here.

Potentially, the most dangerous scenario would be a grand coalition of China, Russia, and perhaps Iran, an “antihegemonic” coalition united not by ideology but by complementary grievances. It would be reminiscent in scale and scope of the challenge once posed by the Sino-Soviet bloc, though this time China would likely be the leader and Russia the follower. Averting this contingency, however remote it may be, will require a display of U.S. geostrategic skill on the western, eastern, and southern perimeters of Eurasia simultaneously.