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History – complete with poetic justice overtones – presented us this week with the ultimate, glaring contrast between the geopolitics of the past, enacted in an incendiary corner of southwest Asia, and the geopolitics of the future, enacted in East Asia’s Beijing, one of the capitals of emerging multipolarity.
Let’s start with the future. The 3rd Belt and Road Forum in Beijing worked as a sort of road map for Eurasia economic/infrastructure integration. It was preceded by the State Council of the People’s Republic of China releasing on October 10 a quite detailed white paper on the New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the actual overarching foreign policy concept of China for the foreseeable future.
BRI, initially defined as OBOR (One Belt, One Road) was launched 10 years ago by President Xi Jinping, first in Astana, Kazakhstan (part of the “belt”, as in a series of economic belts) and then Jakarta, Indonesia (part of the “road”, as in the Maritime Silk Road).
Ten years, nearly 150 participating nations and over $1 trillion in Chinese investments later, the white paper summed it all up: BRI is steadily advancing as a multi-layered platform of international trade and connectivity; as a mechanism to develop vast swathes of the Global South/Global Majority; and as a practical counterpart to Western hegemony.
The bulk of BRI projects concern extractive industries and transportation corridors. It’s not by accident that key extractive industries are concentrated in Russia and the Persian Gulf – and that is intimately linked to Beijing’s complex strategic drive to bypass Hegemon containment and instances of Hybrid War.
Thus it’s no wonder that the guest of honor at the 2023 Forum was President Putin; and all discussions made it quite clear that Russia from now on will be even more of a key BRI partner – in line with the deepening of the Russia-China strategic partnership, whole leaderships are totally in synch.
Faithful to meticulous, symbology-heavy Chinese protocol, it was also inevitable that at the entrance to the Forum’s gala dinner, the first was guest of honor Putin. Right behind him were leaders from Central Asia (Tokayev and Mirziyoyev, from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan) and Southeast Asia (Joko Widodo, from Indonesia).
Up Next: The Northern Silk Road
President Xi announced that participants of the business summit at the Forum clinched new infrastructure deals worth a whopping $97.2 billion.
That’s the new paradigm. Compare it with the old Forever Wars paradigm: the White House working on a $100 billion package to fund the Ukraine-Israel wars.
The 3-hour-long face to face meeting between Putin and Xi was crucial in more ways than one. It was a graphic illustration of Russia-China co-hosting the drive towards a multipolar world. And of BRI working side by side with the upcoming BRICS 11 (in effect on January 1, as Russia starts its BRICS presidency).
Putin, sly as a fox, commented that he could not tell us “everything” he discussed with Xi. What he could say is that they went through “the entire bilateral agenda, a lot of issues there: it’s the economy, finance, political interaction, and joint work on international platforms.”
Additionally, “we discussed in detail the situation in the Middle East as well. I also briefed the president on the situation on the Ukrainian track in detail. All these external factors are common threats (italics mine). They strengthen Russian-Chinese interaction.”
China-Russia signed the largest deal in their shared history for the supply of grain; 2.5 trillion rubles for 70 million tons of grain, leguminous and oilseed cargo delivered for 12 years.
That completely destroys serial US Think Tankland wet dream scenarios advocating a naval blockade as the key strategy for the containment of China, to starve it of food and raw materials.
On the energy front, Xi expected the extended Power of Siberia II, or Russia-Mongolia-China gas pipeline to make “substantial progress” as soon as possible.
As much as Putin stressed both Russia and China’s “respect for civilizational diversity” as well as the right of each civilization-state to its own development model, what really stood out was his detailed explanation of connectivity corridors.
Putin stressed how “a North-South corridor is being formed in the European part of Russia – from the Baltic to Iran. Seamless railway communication will be organized there.”
That was a direct reference to the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC), whose main hubs are Russia, Iran and India. That will interconnect, in the medium and long term, with BRI’s central Eurasian corridors.
Putin added that “other sections will pass through Siberia, the Urals and Yamal. The Northern Sea Passage will be built – to the Arctic Ocean. The railway routes will run from central Siberia to the south – to the Indian and Pacific Oceans (…) A corridor will also pass from the Arctic to the south – a railway line from BAM to Yakutia will be built, bridges across the Lena and Amur, highways will be modernized, and deep-sea terminals will be created.”
Putin’s characterization of the Northern Sea Route is particularly crucial:
“All these transportation corridors from north to south in the European part of Russia, in Siberia, and in the Far East open up the possibility of directly connecting and integrating the Northern Sea Route with major logistics hubs in the south of our continent, on the coast of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. As far as the Northern Sea Route is concerned, Russia is not just inviting its partners to actively use its transit potential. Let me say more: we invite interested states to participate directly in its development and are ready to provide reliable ice navigation, communication and supply. As early as next year, navigation for ice-class cargo ships along the entire length of the Northern Sea Route will become year-round. The creation of the above-mentioned international and regional logistics and trade routes objectively reflects the profound changes that are taking place in the global economy.”
So here we have Putin personally inviting companies and businesses from all over the Global South to directly invest in Eurasia-wide integration. And for those who didn’t get the message, the Suez canal, for many across the Global South, will soon become a relic of the – geoeconomic – past.
Scythians on Horseback Go High-Tech
The Forum was a graphic illustration that BRI, an open platform – a concept unintelligible in the West – goes way beyond trade, infrastructure development and connectivity corridors. It is also about cross-cultural interaction and those notorious, Xi-defined “people-to-people exchanges”, setting an example when it comes to civilization coexistence.
Central Asians and Southeast Asians were fraternizing all over the place. Hungary’s Viktor Orban was delighted to talk to everybody without being branded an “authoritarian” contrary to EU “values”. The Taliban* delegation upgraded their networking when they were not discussing Chinese investment in copper and building a new road through the Wakhan corridor directly connecting northern Afghanistan to Xinjiang.
It’s as if this was a high-tech remix of the spirit of the Ancient Silk Roads, when nomad Scythian horsemen, fond of gold jewelry and Chinese silk, opened a new commercial front by acting as middlemen facilitating trade across Eurasia between Asia and Europe.
Europe, by the way, and the whole collective West, were nearly invisible at the Belt and Road Forum.
Which brings us to the myth of a universalist West now lying in tatters.
The key inflection points, lately, have been the Hegemon humiliation in Afghanistan; the collapse of Project Ukraine – with the incoming, cosmic humiliation of NATO; and the collapse of allegedly incomparable Israeli intel in Palestine, blindly avenged via collective punishment.
Compare all that with Putin-Xi in Beijing. The accumulated debacles point to the inexorable dissolution of the “end of History” Western project. And it gets worse: the new geoeconomics paradigm discussed in Beijing will continue to speed up the pitiless, relentless overstretch, economic and geopolitical, of “the most powerful nation in the history of the world” (copyright The White House).
The Americans are absolutely terrified, among other instances, of the fact that now Iran and Saudi Arabia are strategizing The Big Picture together: the inevitable consequence of a détente first engineered by the Russians and then clinched by the Chinese.
The Americans are absolutely paralyzed by the fact that BRI and BRICS 11 are already engaged in the process of turning upside down the imperial, neocolonial Western business model.
Putin, Xi and the guests at the Belt and Road Forum made it quite clear this is essentially about new commodity supply chains; new and improved Maritime Silk Roads; and bypassing Western-controlled choke points – as the (attached) map shows. It’s all leading to an interconnected maze featuring BRI, BRICS, EAEU and SCO.
The Russia-China-led BRICS 11 – and beyond (Putin gave a hint that Indonesia will become one of the new members in 2024) is already turning all Mackinder-drenched fantasies upside down, on the way to uniting Eurasia and configuring Afro-Eurasia as an extended, peaceful, predominant Heartland.
*Taliban is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.
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This union of Russia and China (and Iran, and BRICS, …), together with the embargoes are the greatest possible disaster for the US and Europe.
All caused by the Ukraine war insanity.
Trump would never have pushed Putin, against his will, into the arms of the Chinese.
So the stolen election totally changed world history.
So a few cheating triple counting voting supervisors in swing states actually changed world history. And, of course, the #2000 mules indirectly caused the Ukrain war, the SWIFT embargo and money confiscation for Russia, and thus the impending collapse of the dollar.
Seems like the butterfly effect. But it was not accidental wing flapping but part of a concerted, decentralized action.
It seems there is no happy ending for the west, best to make the most of what you got & enjoy life amap. There’s still some places this can be done.
The singilarity’s “new and multipolar” economics: AI-powered Central bank at the top, whatever middle managers are needed orbiting close by, and taxcattle making ends meet elsewhere.
Forced lockdowns and “vaccinations”, and theatres of “war” added for “free”.
Regarding the Arctic sea route, Russia has over 40 icebreakers, including nuclear. The U.S., an arctic nation, has three arctic-capable icebreakers, and two of them are usually broken. I remember how the U.S. government once said that the percentage of Covid transmissions occurring outdoors is less than 10%. Following this template, I await the U.S. to say that the number of icebreakers possessed by each nation is fewer than 50.
“long live pepe!” shouts the taliban delegation entering the dining hall, carrying bags of opium and morphine.
Sure. Trump would have rubber stamped Putin’s annexation of all of Ukraine. He would have followed that up by then begging of Putin “Can I build my hotel in Moscow now?” [slurp, slurp]
Global warming dude! We don’t need no stinkin’ ice breakers!
There isn’t going to be any more ice, except in your refrigerator.
The new order is that Putin must get down on his knees and give a monthly BJ to Xi.
You need help.
The economic war on the west is where the battle for the world will be won or lost.
The U.S knows it cannot win this war so is trying to start WW3 while still strong enough to prevail but Russia and China are not taking the bait, as long as Russia contains the war in Ukraine close to its borders the U.S cannot win and this will drain U.S resources to keep it going.
The battle will be won and lost in allies, the U.S ally such as Germany are the one’s taking the hits, how long can they hold on for U.S hegemony, cold weather has started, prices will rise again, will Germans continue with the sacrifices or will they finally shed the American shackles?
Russia and China have set their course…is Europe capable of going it alone?
You need a lot of help.
“The Americans are absolutely terrified”; “The Americans are absolutely paralyzed” etc. Proof: everything ever posted by meamjojo, YHWH, etc.
Trust the plan. Two more weeks. The Indonesian-Lebanese alliance will open up a new chapter in humanity’s glorious march across the galaxy.
Putin –why is he not taking land in Ukraine? Reason: Putin is defending the rights of the Russian-speaking majority in Donbass.
Americans are brain dead —simply watch Fox or CNN and the Simpsons becomes true to life.
There is no triumph of empire. Each success is followed by the previous failure. Unless mankind sees that – heeds the warning of history – the metaphorical road leads only to doom: nuclear Armageddon.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
1) October 10th is widely recognized as the Founding of the Republic of China.
2) The founders of the ROC was the Kuomintang (KMT) Party which translates into the “National Rejuvenation Society.”
3) In recent speeches, Xi has mentioned his vision of a “national rejuvenation.”
4) Taiwan’s KMT party was once the sworn enemy of the PRC; a hostile government in exile. But in recent years they have unofficially ended their nearly century old civil war and are on the path of economic and cultural rapprochement. Political reunification will inevitably follow.
I fear that India is missing out massively on the future growth of its people because of its irrational fear of China and it’s refusal to join the BRI – The Indian armed forces are more than capable of detering and defeating china if there’s war but in the meantime, India should do as much trade as possible using the infrastructure of the BRI by keeping the border and trade issues separate – For a resource poor nation, India’s future is tied best with the resource heavy global South and not with the service heavy western economies which have started to shatter – Hopefully some good sense prevails
The title doesn’t really reflect the interview, just the author’s prejudice. Russia cannot take more land yet. It is doing what it can now. Later, ?
https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2023/10/17/interview-is-russia-run-by-incompetents-or-traitors-an-expert-analyst-weighs-in/
All of this looks very nice and elegant but it remains to be seen what the West will do against those who plan to prevent it from continuing to steal from the world. In 1945 the atomic bomb saved the West from disaster, we will see what weapons they invent now.
The bad thing is that no one invents anything anymore, the printing of money solves everything until now.
I’m no fan of the Taliban… but we shouldn’t punish an entire nation due to not liking their leaders, such as they may be.
F the UN sanctions. Let these people LIVE.
klingon armada will come on sunday to strengthen the alliance.
BRI – BRICS – SCO – EAEU all started before Trump even ran for office. That’s the point Putin made in Valdai and again when he just went to China. Russia and China are civilization states. They don’t think in terms of politics.
You have it backwards. The opium and morphine were the business of the Afghan tribal warlords that the US backed against the Taliban. When the Taliban first got into power they destroyed opium production. When the US invaded – opium went to an all time high.
Yes, China is in a dominant position with Russia simply because of population and size of economy. But China also knows that Russia has an abundance of oil, gas, and minerals available at reasonable prices from a neighbor. Why would China not want to continue to have cordial relations with Russia?
China should, and I think is, looking at its alliance with Russia as a gift from the Western world.
Russia wanted to align with the West following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union. The US said No Thanks, you are more valuable to us as an “enemy”.
The gift from the US is a gift that will keep on giving for decades and perhaps for generations.
This is obviously your fantasy and the ultimate for you would be if they invited you into a threesome with them.
Russia knows for centuries that it would never be fully accepted by the west. the “atlanticists” in Russia ruined the country. Putin has sought to restore Russia. Putin in his own words (former western colonizers could never really be trusted):
Video Link
Mean jojo thinks like a Talmudist. People hate each other, and we’re supreme because we are the most dedicated and experienced haters. That’s sort of Judaism in A Nutshell.
You have to read Indian history under the Raj to understand the Indian elite. Boot-lickers. They made the bet to lick Western boots, still. Together India and China could save humanity, but the Brahmin caste in particular thinks that the Sun shines out their arse.
The Zionazis REALLY despise any State or society that they do not control, and Chinese as ‘Asiatics’ are Sons of Shem or some such untermenschen, and are ready candidates for ‘Amalek’ treatment. THAT is how insane the Zionazis are, although they intend to do it through their Western slave regimes.
True, he did it the other way round.
good point and the greatest own goal of all time. russia just announced that they have completely replaced the former e.u. gas market, with new deals in the chinese market. by finally joining forces the russians are completely immune to illegal western sanctions and the chinese cannot be embargoed on food and energy.
the day and age of the zioneocon is through, i remember when these turds stole the whitehouse in 2000 and had the nerve to say that the “grown-ups” are back in charge. well now we really have adult leadership for the world instead of “the lord of the flies”, feral brats that have so fucked up the world.
Yep, that sums it up pretty well.
If Putin ever decides to give up his current job he could immediately become the most popular History professor in any University in any country in the world. His grasp of history is amazing and he’s able to convey his thoughts so easily and concisely, with emotion completely under control. It will never come to be but a one hour debate seen worldwide between Putin and any leader of any western government (you pick em) would be an eye opening and consequential event.
My pick em “opponent” would of course be our very own Joe Biden. However that pick em would need one extra debate rule: for the entire one hour a camera would also be directed on the faces of our two most prominent spokespeople Pierre and the former Admiral (can’t think of his name). No way the ex Admiral lasts more than20 minutes before going down.
You’ve got this situation/status figured out, presumably miles away from a position to discuss this with someone in DC. Unfortunately, what you have figured out from a distance no one near the White House or Capitol building can grasp.
I sometimes wonder if Blinken, Sullivan, and Vicky are naive, stupid or evil. Conclusion: A bit naive but 100% evil.
Yeah. I guess the difference is Putin is a leader and not a “politician”.
no reason they can’t be both, either way you look at it, their end is nigh.
Behind all the rhetoric, the key issues for the BRICS still remain:
as Michael Hudson has reiterated over and over again: the BRICS nations have failed to set up the basic requisites of a New Financial System.
There’s no word of forming a Central Bank.
There’s no word of setting up a system to deal with DEBT.
There’s no word of setting up a system to provide LOANS.
When the US set up its Financial Structure: it appealed to nations because it provided loans and other means to “earn” money for those countries. Its also attracted wealthy individuals who could INVEST in the US Dollar.
As it presently stands, many of the BRICS nations are still trying to pay off their enormous DEBTS incurred by the US System. Hudson states, the BRICS should simply Stop paying those loans, but they need a financial structure to fall back upon: a Safety Structure. That very Structure still hasn’t been established. Instead, we hear about obscure platitudes and differing theories.
TIME is running out for those countries.
Xi is furious with Putin. He walked out on Putin’s club (BRICS). Putin destroyed the OBOR project. Putin still turns up because Russia is China’s biggest debtor (followed by Qatar and Malaysia) on OBOR. To China, the remaining OBOR opportunity in Russia, as in Qatar and Malaysia, is hydrocarbon resources not infrastructure. Hence the maintenance of minimum relations despite publishing the official map of Outer Manchuria now showing only the Chinese names for settlements. Governor Pu Tin of the new northern province of Ru Xia has not yet demonstrated complete obedience to the Emperor. He must bring great gifts.
There is a BRICS Development Bank but beyond a few token purchase, no one is buying its bonds so it has no money, The managerial staff are British as they have World Bank experience and London contacts.
Come back in 10 years time when they have actually built the necessary pipeline without Ukrainian large diameter steel tubes and Canadian mini-turbines to power anticorrosion devices just for starters. They can do it with 50s technology but slowly and at considerable cost. First make the necessary quality of steel (not from China) then crate the pipe works. They do have enough welders. The Chinese waited until they had their own gas from Tajikistan before striking their first gas deal with Russia. IT was advantageous to China. Power of Siberia 2 will be more so. Also, it doesn’t replace EU gas sales. It is equivalent to one pipeline from many, nothing special. the EU/Turkey buys about 165 billion cubic meters. PoS2 will pump 50bcm at full capacity. PoS1 still isn’t at full capacity 9 years after announcement.
Western racists really are SUCH morons. Give China, or Russia, ten years and they’ll produce anything you care to mention, you arrogant buffoon. In ten years, God willing, there will be NO ‘The Ukraine’, just Russia and a rump Galicia full of gangsters, neo-Nazis and Mafiosi.
Oh, all hail (Heil!) the Mighty White Man, the envy of all the lesser races. This Integrity Initiative troll is a fine example of the type. Mind you, China et al are experts at creating stuff, while the West specialises in destruction and parasitism. Just look at the fucking sewer of a failed state that is the UK. It warms the heart.
Truly deranged, racist, panicked, lying. The Western cabal is disintegrating, the world DESPISES it and the swine like this that run it, and the West is turning to its old strengths-lying, self-deluded aggrandisement and violence, their first and best love. You’ve gone from a sort of self-assured arrogance to hysterical gibbering-it’s a joy to behold.
you are a certified, dyed in wool moron. just to attempt to educate you, i will let you know, that russia’s foreign debt is the lowest it’s been in years (15% of gdp) they could pay it off with their in house gold holdings. what’s the u.s gdp to foreign debt, well let’s ask google, a well know source of russian disinformation. according to comrade google, the u.s. foreign debt to gdp is…..drum roll…..95.3%, sorry to so embarrass you in a public forum, but the real question perhaps, is can you embarrass artificial stupidity?
China ready to improve ties with US ‘at all levels’: Vice president – https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/china-us-improve-ties-all-levels-ready-3906241
But, the US will still seek and destroy what Israel wants it to. China is against the wars in the Middle East to my knowledge. That is something the two countries disagree on.
Just an exorcist specialising in Judaic daemons.
Philip is pure Integrity Initiative, Anglosphere, sanctified lying. Perhaps an AI program-who cares? He’s like all those Blimps who appear in the UK’s Rightwing press, predicting Russia’s imminent collapse and Putin’s overthrow. True psychopaths, stuck in the 19th century. The Bigger the Lie, the greater their prestige at the Old Tosspots’ Club.