WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Joe Biden urges U.S. national security agencies, ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration, to develop strategies to deal with increasingly close ties between Russia, Iran, Korea North and China, according to American officials.
In a national security memorandum released Tuesday, Biden stressed that in exchange for Iran’s support for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, Moscow is providing Tehran with fighter jets, missile defense systems and technology. spatial.
At the same time, Vladimir Putin supplies North Korea with fuel, money and technology, while recognizing the country as a de facto nuclear state.
Russia also conducts joint patrols with China in the Arctic, the administration said.
This classified document was described to journalists, but has not been independently verified by Reuters.
The countries concerned have disputed similar assessments in the past and accused Washington of destabilizing the global situation.
Biden’s memorandum provides for a reorganization of American services to focus on issues common to the four countries, instead of maintaining a strictly regional organization.
The proposed strategies could be implemented or rejected by President-elect Donald Trump who takes office on January 20.
“When the new team examines it, I don’t think they will see anything that tries to lock it in or direct it towards one political option or another,” commented a senior official of the administration on condition of anonymity.
Another official said they wanted to create “new options so a new team and Congress can really get going.”
Officials stressed that a major challenge would be ensuring coordinated enforcement of sanctions and export controls on these four countries, while avoiding retaliation.
“Today we are in a world where our adversaries and competitors learn very quickly from each other,” said one official.
However, there are limits to this cooperation, another official warned, citing the inability of Russia and Iran to support their ally Bashar al-Assad, the recently ousted former Syrian president.
“This realignment kind of poses to China the question of what kind of future it wants and whether it really wants to be an integral part of this group,” the source concluded.
(Written by Trevor Hunnicutt; with contributions from Ismail Shakil; French version Noémie Naudin; edited by Augustin Turpin)
