Most significantly, China’s influence has recently shifted from passive supply to active manipulation of the technological balance on the battlefield—the hallmark of a state engaged in proxy warfare. In May 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated bluntly, “Chinese Mavic [drones] are open for Russians but are closed for Ukrainians.”

The Alaska summit between President Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was more than a high-stakes encounter over the Ukraine war. It signaled America’s recognition that its own missteps have helped drive Russia closer to China, fueling a de facto alliance that poses the gravest threat to U.S. global preeminence since the Cold War.

For more than two decades, Washington and New Delhi built a strategic partnership that was hailed as one of the great success stories of post–Cold War diplomacy. Today, that relationship is facing its most serious test in years — and India is signaling it has other options.

China's regime, which has a top-down concept of the world, likes the idea of big countries, by themselves, settling the world's problems. "Now, there is a crucial precedent for a future summit between Trump and the Chinese leadership, where China would press for major concessions in East Asia," Burton said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-stakes diplomacy to resolve the war in Ukraine is unlikely to jolt oil and gas markets, no matter the outcome.

For Europe, China’s close ties with Russia and perceived support for its war effort have overshadowed ties between China and Europe for more than three years. In Beijing, European Council President António Costa told his counterparts that China should “use its influence on Russia to respect the United Nations Charter and to bring an end of its war of aggression against Ukraine.

Russia has yet again ignored Donald Trump’s bid to hold a summit between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky and said attempts to resolve security issues for Kyiv without Moscow’s participation was a “road to nowhere”.