Kremlin backs Trump's new security strategy, says it aligns with Russia's worldview

Russia has welcomed US President Donald Trump's new national security strategy, saying the document aligns closely with Kremlin's own thinking. It is the strongest endorsement Moscow has given to a US strategy paper since the end of the Cold War.

The strategy outlines Trump's idea of "flexible realism" and suggests reviving the Monroe Doctrine, which treats the Western Hemisphere as an area of US influence. It also warns that Europe faces "civilisational erasure", calls negotiations to end the war in Ukraine a "core" US interest, and says Washington aims to restore strategic stability with Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television reporter Pavel Zarubin that "the adjustments that we see correspond in many ways to our vision".

TRUMP'S STRATEGY LARGELY MATCHES MOSCOW'S VIEW

Responding to the US strategy's pledge to end "the perception, and preventing the reality, of the Nato military alliance as a perpetually expanding alliance", Peskov said the Kremlin found this "encouraging".

He also warned that what he called the US "deep state" viewed the world differently from Trump. Trump has repeatedly argued that long-standing officials seek to undermine leaders who challenge existing policies.

Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and invaded Ukraine in 2022, US security strategies have labelled Moscow a destabilising power. In comments to the TASS news agency, Peskov said that calling for cooperation on strategic stability instead of depicting Russia as a direct threat was a welcome shift.

The Trump strategy identifies the Indo-Pacific as a major battleground for economic and geopolitical competition, saying the US and its allies will strengthen military capabilities to prevent a conflict with China over Taiwan.

Russia, heavily sanctioned over the Ukraine war, has strengthened diplomatic ties with China as Europe cuts reliance on Russian energy.

In a March interview with Fox News, Trump said, "As a student of history, which I am -- and I've watched it all -- the first thing you learn is you don't want Russia and China to get together."

The agreement between Washington and Moscow on major global issues is highly unusual. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the two countries worked together on returning nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics to Russia. They also cooperated briefly after the September 11 attacks.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union presented the United States as a collapsing capitalist power, while former US President Ronald Reagan labelled the USSR an "evil empire". Hopes for partnership emerged after 1991, but tensions rose as the United States backed Nato's expansion through the 1990s. These tensions grew sharper after Vladimir Putin took office in 1999.

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With inputs from agencies

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