Global Diplomacy

Lavrov: Russia-China Strategic Partnership Rallies Nations To Defend International Law

August 7, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in China, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, World war danger updates

Aug. 6, 2022 (EIRNS)–Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, met again on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Aug. 5, their third meeting in the past 30 days, Lavrov noted; the two had consulted when they were in Bali for the G20 ministerial on July 7 and in Tashkent on July 28 for the SCO ministerial. There is nothing obligatory about their schedule; “every time we meet, we see that Russia and China have more issues to discuss and adopt practical decisions on,” Lavrov remarked in opening their meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Lavrov pointed to their common evaluation of “the arrogance” with which “the United States is using every available opportunity to strengthen its domination across the world…. The Americans are acting to suppress any manifestation of independence. In this spirit, they decided to turn Ukraine into a threat for the Russian Federation…. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is in keeping with this approach….

“I am sure that our strategic partnership is a motivating force behind the movement for the priority of international law over the `rules’ invented by the United States and its satellites. The matter concerns above all international law, beginning with the UN Charter and its fundamental principle of the sovereign equality of states. The United States is violating this principle everywhere every day. We must respond to that.” BangladeshBeyond has the full report.

In this regard, Lavrov cited in particular the “Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter” at the United Nations, a forum on which he said both China and Russia are working. “I regard it as a promising structure that should be expanded. We are confident that more countries will join in this work.”

African Nations Plan To Develop Their Fossil Fuel Resources, Climate Change Be Damned

August 7, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Africa, Britain, Economic development updates, Environmentalism updates, General updates, Power & Energy

Aug. 6, 2022 (EIRNS)–The folks at London’s fanatically Malthusian the Guardian are besides themselves, having been leaked a document revealing that African nations are discussing going into next November’s COP27 UN climate summit with a common position asserting their right to develop their fossil fuel resources, in order to develop.

In an Aug. 1 “exclusive,” the Guardian reports that someone passed them a five-page “technical document” with an accompanying 25-page explanation revealing the plan, which was prepared by the African Union for a June 14-16 meeting of AU energy ministers. That document asserts that “in the short to medium term, fossil fuels, especially natural gas, will have to play a crucial role in expanding modern energy access in addition to accelerating the uptake of renewables.”

The Guardian warned that if Africa dares to proceed on “new exploration for gas, and the exploitation of Africa’s vast reserves of oil,” the entire climate scheme might collapse.

Africa must not advance past unreliable “sun and wind,” the head of the green “Power Shift Africa” thinktank, Mohamad Adow insists! Africa Coal Network coordinator Lorraine Chiponda denounced African leaders discussing such an idea as “reckless,” even as she admitted that 600 million people in Africa “live in energy poverty.” That is, they have no access to electricity.

The British Royal Family is on the case. On July 6, a fellow at Chatham House/Royal Institute of International Relations issued a so-called “expert opinion,” warning that this year’s UN COP27 summit being hosted by Egypt, an African nation, is a problem. Egypt has not set any quantifiable emission reduction targets, has no economy-wide carbon reduction target, and never published a long-term strategy for decarbonization. It is also the second-largest producer of natural gas in Africa, and is becoming a fossil gas hub for the Eastern Mediterranean, it notes. Furthermore, Egypt has “voiced support for other African countries to extract and deploy fossil gas and oil resources, making it one of the protagonists of the ‘great fossil gas pushback’. These advocates defend the right of developing countries to deploy fossil gas as a ‘transition fuel’ and champion its necessity to solve energy poverty,” the author complained.

With typical imperial arrogance, however, the author assures that Egypt will be “malleable,” if attention is paid to change its stance.

“Government Endangers Germany As a Business Location!”

August 17, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Germany, Sanctions

“Government Endangers Germany As a Business Location!”—

Aug. 15, 2022 (EIRNS)–Germany’s MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk) TV/Radio station reports that an “incendiary letter to Chancellor Scholz” has been issued in which predominantly eastern German medium-sized companies call for a rethink on the Russia sanctions. They see the economy is at great risk.

“Mr. Scholz, stop and make a policy that we can live with and not sink.” With this urgent appeal, medium-sized companies belonging to the Zentralkonsum eG association call on the German government to “readjust the embargo policy against Russia.” The association is the umbrella organization of the East German consumer cooperatives, whose member companies employ nearly 6,300 people, according to their own figures.

In an interview with MDR, Martin Bergner, spokesman for the association’s board stated: “Stopping all gas deliveries and putting the German economy in front of price increases at which no one can produce at a profit anymore, that won’t work.” Sufficient gas must be imported to keep the economy running, he said. He added, existing nuclear and coal-fired power plants must also guarantee security of supply.

A bakery chain, Landbäckerei Stendal, reports that they have already been told that they would have to pay four times as much for electricity and six times as much for gas. Added to this would be the increase in the minimum wage from October, and the gas levy, i.e. the additional costs that every consumer would have to pay if, instead of cheap Russian gas, a more expensive one had to be purchased, for example from the U.S.A.

The increased costs have to be added to the products, which in turn fuels inflation, whether in retail, hotels, restaurants, or industry. This is by no means about diminished profits, he says: “We are really in the red,” says Andreas Bosse, the managing director of Landbäckerei Stendal, and expects his family business to lose as much as 300,000 euros already this year.

“It undermines the existence of the companies with damage that cannot be made good,” write the authors of the appeal to Scholz: “The government wants to promote regional products and organic products. But exactly these products are the first thing buyers do without in order to save money,” adds Martin Bergner. He adds that the Chancellor himself once was active at the Central Association of German Consumer Cooperatives. He should therefore know exactly what the situation is like for cooperatively organized businesses. The signatories of the open letter, which charge the government with “being ideologically stuck,” also include prominent restaurants like Berghotel Oberhof and Dorotheenhof Weimar.

Rhine Valley Railway Tunnel Would Be Cheaper Than Previously Believed

August 17, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Economic development updates, General updates, Germany, Railway projects

Rhine Valley Railway Tunnel Would Be Cheaper Than Previously Believed—

Aug. 15, 2022 (EIRNS)–The official feasibility study for building a railway tunnel along the Rhine Valley between Bonn and Wiesbaden, concluded that it would be cheaper to build than it had been believed in the past. The 118 kilometer tunnel dedicated to freight traffic would enable freight trains to avoid the narrow part of the Rhine valley where the infrastructure is in many places over 150 years old and creates unacceptable noise pollution for the communities along the valley. The route is one of the most important and heavily utilized railway routes in Europe and connects the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp with the Italian port of Genoa. The project has been featured in both EIR and the EIR Eurasian landbridge reports. The study, commissioned for the German States of Rhineland Palatinate and Hesse found that the project would cost 6.8 billion euros, rather than the 8 to 10 billion euros of previous estimates.

In an interview in Germany’s SWR TV on August 12 Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said the report was a “Thumbs up” for the states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, and said: “It’s very gratifying that we have positive news from this feasibility study. Now the question is: How is the benefit-cost ratio to be assessed? And for that we need the traffic forecast for 2040. That’s the next step. But the first signal for the region is: thumbs up!”

Kremlin Spokesman: Russia Stands in “Absolute Solidarity” With China

August 4, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in China, Color Revolutions, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Russia, United States, World war danger updates

Aug. 3 (EIRNS) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated yesterday that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was “purely provocative. We see this, it is being recorded by all countries of the world. We stand in absolute solidarity with China here. Its sensitivity to this issue is understandable. It is justified. And instead of respecting this the US is choosing the path of confrontation. It doesn’t bode well,” the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that Washington’s decision is “only regrettable.”

Asked whether the Pelosi visit could lead to “global war,” Peskov said her visit was a “clear provocation,” but “I would suggest not to throw around words as serious [as ‘global war’]. That said, “underestimating the level of tension sparked by this visit” is not advisable either, he added.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, asked by journalists on Wednesday what was behind the Pelosi trip, stated: “It was the drive to prove to everyone their impunity and to act accordingly. ‘I do whatever I want’, something like that. I can hardly imagine any other reason to create a flashpoint out of thin air, despite knowing what it would mean for China.”

Northern Brazil State Eager to Join the Belt and Road

August 4, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Brazil, BRI - Belt & Road, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Power & Energy, Railway projects

Aug. 3, 2022 (EIRNS)–Leading representatives of industrial, port and rail interests in the northeastern state of Maranhão turned out in force for a three-day seminar July 11-13, sponsored by the state government, on the subject of “Maranhão’s Potential in China’s New Silk Road: Business and Development Opportunities for Brazil.” The central subject was the proposal to transform the Itaqui port complex at the state capital, São Luis, which already handles major grain and metals exports from Maranhão and several surrounding states, into a logistics, distribution and manufacturing center on the Belt and Road. The featured speaker was Paul Tae-Woo Lee, a professor of International Logistics and Maritime Transport at Zhejiang University, who came from China specifically for the seminar. Lee was one of the authors of the 2022 study, “Strategic Locations for Logistics Distribution Centers along the Belt and Road,” which includes the Maranhão port in the potential sites it takes up, and he briefed the seminar at length on the global scope and current status of the BRI.

The key organizer of seminar was the state of Maranhão’s Secretary for Economic Development and Strategic Projects, José Reinaldo Tavares, a civil engineer known for getting things done. He has played a key role for decades in great infrastructure projects aimed at developing Brazil’s poor but resource-rich northeast. He headed SUDENE, the big northeast Brazilian development agency created in 1959 on the model of the TVA; is described as the “author” of the São Francisco Water Transfer project (also modeled on the TVA); and as (federal) Transport Minister under President Sarney, was responsible for the creation of the North-South Railway.

“The Maranhão capital possesses extraordinary conditions for joining [the BRI] because of its road, rail connections and exceptional port conditions. The connection with the North-South Railway, Brazil’s leading cargo transport axis, linking the railroads of the country’s five regions, is an example. In the region called the ‘Northern arc,’ that is, above the 16th parallel, no state has similar transport logistics conditions,” local media emphasized. “Including São Luís in the greatest economic expansion program in the world, that of China, will guarantee tremendous resources for infrastructure, commodity distribution centers, and privileged access to the other countries which make up the project.”

The president of Itaqui Port, Ted Lago, emphasized to the seminar that while the port is already a leading point of cargo shipments to China, by Maranhão becoming a major center on the BRI, South America as a whole can be brought into that global project. He also insisted that Brazil wants its trade relations with China to be more than its shipping commodities; it wants Chinese industries to set up in Maranhão, to add value and generate jobs.

Former New Zealand Minister Denounces Ukraine Hit List, Calls for Government Investigation

August 3, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Counterintelligence, General, General updates, Geopolitics updates, Global Diplomacy, New Zealand, Ukraine, UN, World war danger updates

Aug. 1, 2022 (EIRNS)—A former New Zealand Minister, Matthew Robson, who was placed on the Ukraine/NATO hit list has responded with a powerful blast at the attack and a call for the New Zealand government to investigate. Robson is the former New Zealand Minister of Disarmament and Arms Control and Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs.

His full statement reads:

I have been placed on a blacklist by the Ukrainian government, in the company of many prominent scholars and well-known public figures.

I am quite flattered to be in the company of such an eminent list of people with widely varying opinions on the nature of the war in the Ukraine.

But all of them are engaged in the time-honored tradition of scholars and democratic societies of honest and open debate rather than the “group think” demanded by NATO governments.

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, Section 14, provides the following guarantee:

Freedom of expression: Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which New Zealand and, I presume, the Ukraine are signatories guarantees the same. I am writing to the Prime Minister of New Zealand to ask her to take up with the government of the Ukraine this breach of my right, under both New Zealand and international law, to freely express my opinions, and my being on a list that endangers my safety.

Transregional Connectivity Projects Debated at Tashkent Conference on Afghanistan

August 3, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Power & Energy, Railway projects, Tajikistan

Aug. 1 (EIRNS)—As the organizer and host of the July 26-27 conference in Tashkent, entitled “Afghanistan: Security and Economic Development,” the government of Uzbekistan issued a summary report on some of the major points of discussion which took place there, with an important focus on priority infrastructure projects to enhance regional connectivity.

Published July 27 by The Diplomat, the report emphasizes participants’ understanding that lasting peace will only be achieved through stabilization and recovery of Afghanistan’s economy. It is therefore necessary, it states, “to promote the integration of Afghanistan into interregional economic processes, to promote the implementation of socially significant and infrastructure projects, including the formation of transregional transport, energy and other corridors.”

Among the projects were those put forward by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev to advance the construction of the trans-Afghanistan railroad as a means of connecting South Asia via Afghanistan. Other projects include laying the (Uzbekistan to Afghanistan) Surkhan-Pul-i-Khumri power transmission line, the creation of the Termez, Uzbekistan, cargo transport and logistics hub, as well as the transformation of the training center in Termez into an educational cluster for training Afghan personnel.

According to The Diplomat, Uzbekistan is the major promoter of the 573 km Trans-Afghan railroad. First proposed in December 2018, it would extend the Afghan rail network from Mazar-e-Sharif—a regional hub in northern Afghanistan, close to both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan—to Kabul and then to Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, where the railway would cross the border with Pakistan at Torkham and run into Pakistan via Peshawar. Goods will then be offloaded to connect with the Pakistan rail system and from there travel down to the seaports of Karachi, Gwadar, and Qasim.

The railroad would have an estimated capacity of 20 million tons of cargo per annum, and once operational, would cut down travel time from 35 days to 3-5 days from Uzbekistan to Pakistan, The Diplomat reports. There are many challenges to be overcome in building the project, including very difficult geography, security issues, different rail gauges, and not least of which is the $4.8 billion in financing.

Another important project is the Central Asia-South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade Project (CASA-1000), a $1.2 billion project that would bring 1,300 MW of seasonal power from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Because of their hydroelectric power capacity, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have excess electricity to sell. Although the project was put on hold when the Taliban took power, construction has now been resumed with an estimated completion date of 2024. It is financed by a consortium of international financial organizations.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Visit to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan Has Development Focus

August 3, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Afghanistan, BRI - Belt & Road, China, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Kyrgyzstan, Railway projects, Tajikistan

Aug. 1 (EIRNS)—Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi continued on his Central Asian diplomatic tour, which brought him to high level meetings in Uzbekistan July 28-29, including the SCO Foreign Ministers’ meeting, and then to Kyrgyzstan on July 30, and Tajikistan July 31-Aug. 1, all focused on the growth of both the nations, and Central Asia as a whole.

In Kyrgyzstan, Wang met with Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubaev in the town of Cholpon-Ata. The Chinese Foreign Ministry readout reported that Wang said “the Chinese side has felt the great importance and ardent expectations by Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan [CKU] railway project, and will jointly advance this important project at a faster pace…. The Chinese side is ready to import more green and quality livestock products from Kyrgyzstan.” Wang said that China and Kyrgyzstan are ready to increase the frequency of direct flights. Kulubaev said he looks forward to accelerating the CKU railway and welcomed Chinese experts’ arrival in Kyrgyzstan to “carry out the survey work.” His country is “ready to work with China to speed up the implementation of key projects such as the new North-South Highway” and the renovation of the municipal roads of Bishkek, the nation’s capital.

Kulubaev attached special importance to China’s pledge to construct in his nation the Luban Workshop, a program China has developed in several nations, in which Chinese engineers and professionals educate host country’s students and labor force in such subjects as industrial robots, cloud computing, high-speed train maintenance, and vocational training.

On July 31, Wang set foot in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, where he met with President Emomali Rahmon, who noted on his website that China is one of the major trading partners of Tajikistan and its largest investor. Bilateral trade between Tajikistan and China during the first six months of 2022 increased by 82%, compared to the same period last year, and accounted for one-fifth of Tajikistan’s foreign trade.

Some of the groundwork for this trip was worked out at the third China + Central Asia Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan on June 12. The C-5 include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; at the ministerial, Wang outlined a 10-point program, stemming from the Belt and Road, for the region’s development. It is significant that for the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), which Russia helped to found in 2014, both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are full-time members, and Uzbekistan is an observer.

It is not accidental that both the China and Russian headed organizations seek the agricultural and industrial development of landlocked Central Asia, including Afghanistan, over the Anglo-American looting eyes.

First Ship in UN-Turkey Grain Deal Leaves Odessa with Corn for Lebanon

August 3, 2022by Mary Jane Freeman in Agriculture, Economic development updates, General, General updates, Global Diplomacy, Russia, Turkey, UN

Aug. 1 (EIRNS)—This morning, the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship Razoni, carrying 26,000 tons of corn (maize), left the Ukrainian port of Odessa destined for Tripoli, Lebanon. It is the first ship to leave Odessa under the auspices of the UN/Turkey-brokered deal signed with Ukraine and with Russia on July 22 by which Ukrainian grains will be shipped to world markets. Turkey’s Defense Ministry announced today’s departure, reporting that the Razoni will arrive in Istanbul on Aug. 2 where it will be inspected before passing through the Bosphorus Strait and heading for its destination. It was escorted out of Odessa by Ukrainian ships.

TASS reports that the joint grain export coordination center, based in Istanbul, will use satellites to monitor the passage of ships. According to the Associated Press, there are 16 more dry cargo ships in Odessa in line to ship out under the program. Today’s departure was welcomed by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said he hoped this would be first of many Ukrainian ships to leave the port carrying urgently needed grains to “bring much-needed stability and relief to global food security especially in the most fragile humanitarian contexts.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed this “very positive” development. “Let’s hope that all the agreements will be implemented from all sides and that the mechanism will work effectively,” TASS reported him as saying.

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