US spy agencies say country faces ‘increasingly fragile world order’

WASHINGTON: US intelligence agencies said on Monday the country faces an “increasingly fragile world order,” strained by great power competition, transnational challenges and regional conflicts, in a report released as agency leaders testified in the US Senate.

“An ambitious but anxious China, a confrontational Russia, some regional powers, such as Iran, and more capable non-state actors are challenging longstanding rules of the international system as well as US primacy within it,” the agencies said in the 2024 Annual Threat Assessment of the US intelligence committee. The report largely focused on threats from China and Russia, the greatest rivals to the United States, more than two years after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

China is providing economic and security assistance to Russia as it wages war in Ukraine, by supporting Russia’s industrial base, the report said.

“Trade between China and Russia has been increasing since the start of the war in Ukraine, and (Chinese) exports of goods with potential military use rose more than threefold since 2022,” it said.