lol, people around this board are as uneducated as it gets. It's only yelling 'China!, China!' all the time. Philippines changing their course, lol. Learn some history boy before you join any kind of discussion about SCS around here. Boy...That might be true but in the small scale. No one said Ukraine is ready to join NATO.
Russia don't have enough power to occupy half a million square km of nothingness. They're busy enough with their own affairs at the moment
There was nothing like that. In case of war on the Pacific I think that Russia would rather want to capitalize on the alternative transport route through Antartic region than backing up PRC in any fashion. I bet you never thought about that aspect. Yes Russian territory there could be an alternative way to deliver everything escaping Pacific and Indian Ocean. That's one of their fortes.
Asia <> PRC
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Nope, the Philippines is still hedging. And I'm very familiar with the history of the SCS. Particularly when Hillary Clinton "refreshed her memory" and announced to the world that the SCS was now a core interest for China, as per Geoff Dyer. She was right that China would have no choice but to embrace her announcement. But she was wrong in the Chinese response, which demonstrated US impotence. See youtube 1UMhxAJaM5Q
What was the EU thinking for Ukraine? Membership of the EU. That is probably not going to happen now, but at a high cost to Russia.
Russia still does have the capacity to unfreeze the Ukraine conflict and make it a hot war again, which makes NATO membership impossible. That don't need to occupy the rest of Ukraine.
In the event of a Pacific War? Russia would be really stupid if they didn't indirectly support China, whilst taking advantage where they can. Russia will surely hang if they are alone.
And bringing up the Antarctic transport routes is irrelevant. Look at the geography, where the trade flows are going/coming and also the relative costs involved. You can look at these yourself.
Of course Asia is more than just China, but remember that China is somewhat larger economically than the rest of Asia combined. You can count it yourself.
Your original comment was that Europe is important, but I'm making the point that Asia overall is already economically larger than the US+Europe. And that global economic activity continues to shift towards Asia due to much higher growth rates from China, India, etc
