Political scientist: It is rather Turkey determines geopolitics in  the South Caucasus, than the United States and China

ArmInfo. I do not share at all the expectations that have developed within the journalistic and expert community from the meeting of the Presidents of Russia and the United  States, Putin and Biden, scheduled for June 16. Director of the  Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan expressed a similar opinion  to ArmInfo.

"It is necessary to take into account the presence of a certain  dynamics in relations between Russia and Turkey, between the United  States and Iran. Therefore, I do not think that from this meeting one  should expect serious changes in the policy of the United States and  Russia in the South Caucasus, especially in their joint actions in  our region. The Biden-Putin meeting can only cause some minor changes  in the South Caucasus, taking into account these dynamics, "he  stressed.

According to the political scientist, the main problem for the United  States today, as well as yesterday, is not Russia, but China,  however, only globally, and not specifically in the South Caucasus,  primarily due to significant differences between the South Caucasus  and, for example, Central Asia, where dependence on China is growing  exponentially. In the South Caucasus, the growth of China's economic  influence, in Iskandaryan's opinion, also exists, but it does not  differ much from the growth of the Chinese presence in almost all  regions of the world.

In this light, the political scientist at the moment does not see  Beijing's special focus on the South Caucasus. And the existing  build-up of Chinese influence and presence, in his opinion, is a  derivative of the general trend of the transformation of the PRC from  a regional power into a global one. And this transformation,  according to his forecasts, will be long lasting, moreover, both in  the South Caucasus and in other regions of the world.  

"I have repeatedly spoken about this, including with you. I will say  now - in the case of the South Caucasus specifically, the general  situation, general background, general trends are primarily  determined not by the United States or China. For better or worse,  but all this is determined by the growing influence of Turkey.  

This is the case, and we all see this. And the latter is a derivative  of the global process of extinction of the monopolar system of world  governance against the background of the absence of a bipolar system.  All this leads to a natural increase in the importance of the  so-called middle-level states. In the case of the South Caucasus, it  can be said conditionally that the geopolitics in this region is  determined not by the United States or China. Basically, it is still  determined by Turkey," the political scientist summed up