Thirty-six thousand soldiers: the week Washington threatened to leave Europe

The UAE announced on April 30 their effective withdrawal from OPEC after 59 years of membership — May 1, 2026 marks the end of the longest Arab membership in the cartel. The UAE produced 2.9 million barrels per day in 2024 (BBC, Al Jazeera) and the exit opens the way to bilateral oil deals. Chinese state media (Global Times, Xinhua, CCTV) did not cover the news, despite their habitual detailed analysis of Gulf cartel dynamics. China imports roughly 50% of its crude from the Middle East, with a substantial share from the UAE. The silence is telling: Beijing does not wish to spotlight the fragility of the OPEC system on which it depends for supply stability, nor signal too early that bilateral China-Gulf agreements could replace multilateral coordination. India also ignored the news — an editorial choice driven by approaching national elections and reluctance to revive domestic debates over fuel prices. Brazil, the third major emerging-market customer, covered OPEC only through the lens of prices, not structural fragmentation.

Japanese media devoted little coverage to the two most structuring stories of the week for Japanese security and economic interests: Trump's threat to withdraw 36,000 troops from Germany, and the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as Powell's Fed successor (partisan 13-11 vote at the Senate Banking Committee — the first such vote in the committee's history, per Fortune). Japan depends on the US security umbrella in Asia — any erosion of US commitments in Europe reduces the credibility of Indo-Pacific guarantees. Japan is also the world's third-largest economy and a major holder of US Treasuries: the politicization of the Fed directly affects the value of its reserves. The editorial silence is strategic: Tokyo is preparing the G7 summit and avoiding amplifying internal US tensions before a multilateral diplomatic format. Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri Shimbun preferred to cover domestic topics (post-quake reconstruction, weapons exports to the Philippines) rather than relay the transatlantic crisis.

On April 26, Trump cancelled his envoys' trip to Islamabad and the US-Iran talks collapsed — but Pakistan continues positioning itself as a structural mediator. Dawn (Pakistan), Al Jazeera (Qatar), Anadolu (Turkey) and The National (UAE) documented Asim Munir's trajectory: visit to Tehran on April 16, hosting talks in W15, active mediation on Hormuz reopening in late April. Indian outlets (Times of India, The Hindu, Indian Express) almost entirely ignored the Pakistani role, even though a Pakistani diplomatic success would redefine the regional balance to New Delhi's detriment. The Indian silence reflects an editorial preference: cover Pakistan only through the terrorism lens, never as a credible diplomatic actor. This cultural filter creates a strategic blind spot: if Pakistan crystallizes a non-Western mediation framework (with Qatar and the UAE), India will be excluded by default, despite having the diplomatic capacity to participate.