Commentary
Washington has become a spectator in the decisive campaign to drive a wedge between China and Russia.
Much of the West’s strategic strength in dealing with Russia and China is bound up in the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), held in the Uzbek city of Samarkand on Sept. 15-16. It is about the essence of the debate as to who controls the Eurasian heartland.
It is a conference that is, however, beyond the reach of Washington.
It will be a test of whether the Central Asian states feel that they have any hope of a meaningful friendship with the West in the wake of the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which essentially—because of the manner of the U.S. withdrawal—spelled the end for now of U.S. prestige in the region….