As North Korea, Iran and China support Russia’s war, is a ‘new axis’ emerging?

U.S. fears growing coordination between anti-West countries is creating a much broader, urgent security threat one where partnerships of convenience are evolving into more outright military ties.

The fear is that a shared animosity toward the US is driving these countries to work together amplifying the threat that any one of them alone poses to Washington or its allies.

North Korea’s military partnership with Russia links the grinding, hot conflict in Europe to an especially tense period in the Cold War era.

China is by far the most powerful player in the grouping, the lead trade partner for Russia , North Korea and Iran .

Beijing has ramped up efforts to challenge US global leadership and shape an international order into one that favors China and other autocracies.

China has repeatedly insisted that its relationship with Russia is one of “non-alliance, non-confrontation and not targeting any third party”.

The risk is "sufficiently present" that the US could face a conflagration involving multiple countries, an analyst says.

China could dial down this potential, but as the optics stand today “the risk is sufficiently present” that the U.S. could face multiple of these countries, he says.