Analysis of Global Authoritarian Axis

First is,

you are certainly right to think

about relationships between Iran, Russia and China

and let's not forget North Korea

because what has happened is that

a kind of axis has formed

to use a term from the era of World War II

and this axis is essentially Chinese led

because China is by far the largest player

and it's an axis of authoritarians.

They are ideologically very different but

they have a common interest

which is in undermining an international order that is US led.

China has been crucial to Putin's war in Ukraine,

it would have been very hard indeed

for Putin to sustain that war effort

without very large flows of goods,

so-called dual use goods into the Russian economy

from China.

The Russians got the Shaheed drone design from the Iranians,

then adapted it in order to fire them

at the Ukrainians,

Russians have certainly been sharing technology with Iran

and absolutely crucially the Iranian missile programme

which was the major reason for taking action against Iran

this year is essentially a Chinese operation.

All the inputs of Iranian missiles are coming from China.

So I think point one,

you are right to think of this as a global authoritarian axis.