They barely contributed anything... they also were Israel's number one trading partner by 2 way trade. They picked a side, just not the side you seem to think they should
Geobloke
The link is dated calendar year 2024, well after the flood mate. The second largest economy couldn't even break the top 8 in funding 🤣
Why isn't China coloured blue?
So if the USA and Russia declare peace, but Ukraine keeps fighting?
Have you got a publicly available document that was signed by leaders of NATO and the USSR successor that there would be no eastward advancement?
Compare gold to the other elements on the periodic table as a medium to store value and you'll see why it is used for this task.
It is non toxic, it can be easily held and transported, it is non reactive (it won't rust or combust), it is relatively rare, it is dense (a lot of gold fills a small space) and, well like others have said, it's shiny. It can be easily moulded and forgotten about for millennia and still be the same way it was last used (look at Viking hordes as an example) few other things can do this, maybe diamonds? But they can not be recombined again like gold
I guess if CCP stands for Chinese Central Planning?
The CCP is the world's biggest venture capitalists
It seems like the US is prepared to cede foreign policy in that region to who ever has the biggest stick. Trump is already losing influence and it doesn't look like any one else on the right has the ability to hold the MAGA movement together? Maybe MGT?
Anyway, way back in the Obama years, the US was already pivoting to the Asia pacific as its primary focus. Trump just ripped the band aid off Europe in his usual "diplomatic" fashion.
In the cold war it made sense. West Germany was a shattered shell of what it had been and what it would become. There was a concern that the USSR might invade, which Bonn had no hope of repelling by itself, probably the only effective method they might have would be to develop nuclear weapons. Nobody wanted more nuclear weapons, so alliances were developed and to get US skin in the game, troops were put in the firing line as an insurance policy
Next step, the Kerch Bridge please