So this is the "project" NATO has to offer to the West -- and the Global South. Let's see what's happening on the other side.
A game-changer took place only a few days ago, at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Tashkent. The SCO is now in the process of turning geopolitics upside down. Not accidentally a key thermometer of the Beijing leadership's state of mind compared it with the fracture of the super-continent Gondwana 180 million years ago.
As Brexit may have prefigured the slow motion implosion of the EU -- to the consternation of the elites who run the Empire of Chaos -- the SCO was admitting both India and Pakistan into its fold. It's too early to identify the long-term winners in the post-Brexit geopolitical configuration. The Beltway hysterically proclaimed, "Putin won." Beijing, in a measured response, admitted that the US dollar won. Moscow, without enouncing it, considered that the Russia-China partnership might have won.
What Beijing actually wants is in fact way more complex; no less than a China-Europe strategic partnership, side-by-side with the Russia-China strategic partnership, evolving in parallel to the SCO.
Once again, it's all about massive Eurasian inter-connectivity -- reflected in the non-stop action to build multiple economic corridors. That involves, for instance, the development of the China-Europe freight train service, now growing steadily under the "China Railway Express" brand. Trade, investment and infrastructure projects are booming all across Eurasia -- from the Hungary-Serbia railway to the Qamchiq Tunnel in Uzbekistan, from power transmission lines in Kyrgyzstan to the China-Central Asia natural gas pipeline system.
Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng practically gave the road map away, when he stressed that future regional economic cooperation will happen within the framework of the SCO, and guided by One Belt, One Road (OBOR), the official Chinese denomination for the New Silk Roads.
This implies, for instance, China signing border trade currency settlement deals with Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; a cross-border trade settlement currency deal with Tajikistan; and currency swap deals with Russia, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
And that's how the whole thing merges; SCO, OBOR, the AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank), the BRICS's New Development Bank (NDB), the Silk Road Fund. Investment and financing fueling total interconnectivity.
All this may be possible because the SCO -- unlike EU-NATO -- is neither an alliance nor a union. It took the SCO years to define its core mission; are we the Asian NATO or are we a trade bloc? The SCO is in fact a mutant, a hybrid; a very Asian, pragmatic concept of unity in diversity.
"Open regionalism" is not far off the mark. For instance, India can be part of the SCO but also maintain some symbiosis with the US.
Yet some key concepts are clear, especially the concerted drive to build an all-encompassing infrastructure capable of unifying in practice all its members, from Southwest to South, Central and East Asia.
This is all part of a complex, highly strategic Chinese geopolitical project -- which involves turbo-charged trade/commercial relationships with every player from Europe to Central Asia to Southeast Asia.
No wonder the president of AIIB, Jin Liquin, has been adamant to emphasize OBOR projects will be supported by AIIB; what they need is to "promote growth, be socially acceptable and be environmentally friendly."
The Russian-German love affair
As much as Russia will be deeply implicated in Eurasia integration, Moscow also keeps a close eye on the European front. Russia and Germany may still be far from forming a strategic partnership, but they are on their way. Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel is on record saying sanctions should be lifted; he's also a supporter of Nord Stream II, which will increase the capacity of the original Nord Stream pipeline.
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for his part has qualified Polish/Baltic anti-Russian maneuvers as "saber rattling."
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
2
2
1
