We are witnessing the laying of the foundation for a future bipolar global system. This was stated by former Armenian Prime Minister Khosrov Harutyunyan while commenting on the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
China offers a different model of influence
According to Harutyunyan, it is obvious that the United States is seriously concerned about the expansion of China’s economic and geoeconomic influence.
He argued that, unlike the United States, China builds interstate relations not through direct pressure or the open use of force, but by offering mutually beneficial opportunities to partner countries.
“The Chinese mainly offer infrastructure investments that create opportunities for new value generation within a country and increase that country’s geoeconomic and geopolitical role. China itself also benefits from this process,” the former prime minister stated.
According to him, China is pursuing a fundamentally different policy that today appears fully justified.
He emphasized that China’s influence is especially strong across the Global South, where Beijing is viewed as a reliable partner operating according to the principle of mutually beneficial cooperation.
“The American approach is mainly transactional: if you want security, then pay for it, and we will provide that security. These are two entirely different political and geopolitical approaches,” Harutyunyan said.
Competition between two global concepts
The former prime minister also noted that the vulnerability of Persian Gulf countries became more visible amid tensions surrounding Iran and broader regional instability.
According to him, it became clear that the presence of American military bases did not provide those countries with full security guarantees.
“China has never followed that path,” he stressed.
Harutyunyan believes that two different geoeconomic and geopolitical concepts have now entered a stage of direct competition.
“How healthy this competition will be — time will show,” he noted.
He also emphasized that China’s leadership does not operate on the basis of short-term emotional calculations and instead prefers long-term, systematic, and consistent policies, especially in building strong economic foundations for international relations.
The yuan challenges the petrodollar system
Harutyunyan did not rule out the possibility that discussions between the United States and China also included the creation of a new international payment system centered around the Chinese yuan.
He recalled that China has already reached agreements with several Persian Gulf countries to conduct oil trade in yuan.
“This is a very serious challenge for the United States because American economic power was built for decades on the petrodollar system, and today that system is gradually losing its position,” the former prime minister stated.
He also suggested that the negotiations may have covered issues related to natural resources, advanced digital technologies, and cooperation in artificial intelligence.
At the same time, Harutyunyan stressed that current developments demonstrate that the United States can no longer ignore China’s global geoeconomic and geopolitical role.
“Based on all this, we can assume that we are witnessing the laying of the foundation for a future bipolar global system,” Khosrov Harutyunyan concluded.