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China Myanmar Corridor Progresses

Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw, following his meeting with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw, today, said Myanmar appreciates the proposal of building a China-Myanmar economic corridor, and intends to actively integrate with the Chinese over the project, Xinhua reported.

In this context, China has advanced a well received proposal in Myanmar, for a three-phase plan of action, so that Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh can return home. The International Organization for Migrations says that more than 610,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh. Speaking of the BRI China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, Wang pointed out that “China regards Myanmar as an important cooperative partner on the joint implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative, and is willing to discuss the building of China-Myanmar economic corridor based on Myanmar’s development guidelines and practical needs, so as to promote common development of the two countries.” Wang further said, the Chinese side believes the Myanmar government has the wisdom and capability of pushing forward its domestic peace process, and China will continue to offer support at Myanmar’s request, reported Xinhua.

„The economic corridor will start in China’s Yunnan Province, extend to the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, and then east to Yangon and west to the Kyaukpyu special economic zone, forming a three-pillar giant cooperation pattern,” Wang said at the press conference on Nov. 19th., reported Global Times.


Finland-China Rail Freight Route Opened

Nov. 13 – With more than 40 containers, a cargo train bound for Xi’an, China departed Kouvola in southeastern Finland, on Nov. 10. It will take 17 days to run 9,000 km distance across the Eurasian continent, passing through Russia and Kazakhstan among other countries, before reaching its final destination in northwest China.

Goods packed in the containers are all made in Finland, ranging from machinery, timber, workwear, and ship components, according to Jari Gronlund, chief operation officer of Unytrade company. Founded just this past summer, Unytrade especially serves the newly-opened route, said Gronlund, who believes the only railway route linking the Nordic countries and China will open a new channel to bring more Nordic products to nations along the route.

Olli-Pekka Hilmola, logistics professor at Lappeenranta University of Technology, told Finnish national broadcaster Yle that a regular train connection from Kouvola to China would be important to the Finnish economy. Li Zhao, Assistant of the General Manager of Xi’an International Inland Port Investment & Development Group, explained that goods will be further transported to various markets in China from the terminus in Xi’an.

As planned, a total of five trains will run between Kouvola and Xi’an by the end of this year. At the same time, a train would depart from Xi’an to Kouvola every week. Li said the trips may start to increase if trade goes smoothly; hopefully a train of goods would be sent every day in the near future.


Rail Freight Connection between China and Slovakia

Nov. 14 -The first trial train with containers from China arrived on Monday, Nov. 13, at the cargo port in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The train’s 11,000-km journey from the Chinese city of Dalian, via Russia and Ukraine lasted 17 days. The train was welcomed by Transport Minister Arpád Érsek, State Secretary for Finance and Government Envoy for the Silk Road initiative Dana Meager, and Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia Lin Lin. The number of such trains should gradually increase and next year their number might be as high as 500.

“The fact that goods travelling across Asia will be transported via the territory of Slovakia in order to get farther into Europe is a huge success and an excellent commercial opportunity,” said Minister Érsek, endorsing the idea of Bratislava becoming a key rail freight hub for Europe. “The transport capacities of Slovakia are today far from being fully utilized. I firmly believe that we are only at the beginning of successful cooperation,” he said.


Webcast: President Trump’s Asia Trip and The New Paradigm

SCHILLER INSTITUTE ANNOUNCEMENT: HELGA ZEPP LAROUCHE WEEKLY WEBCAST
Thursday, November 16
6 PM CETNoon EST

To say that President Trump’s Asia trip was an historic success may be an understatement!  Though the highlight was his visit to Beijing and meetings with China’s President Xi Jinping, his meetings with other leaders, including his exchanges with President Putin, were productive.  In every event, he made explicit that the days when the U.S. acted as the enforcer of a unipolar empire are over.

Don’t be depressed or confused by the honking of the geese of the old establishment, with their lies and slanders against Trump and those who met with him.  These are only the hysterical squawks of those whose  collapsing world order is in its death throes.  They cannot succeed in stopping the momentum of the new dynamic unleashed in the world.  Let them squawk — we have to do our job, to ensure that they are defeated, and that the New Paradigm fully emerges.

What now?  Where do we go from here? Join Helga Zepp LaRouche on this week’s webcast, as she will provide an update on the strategic significance of Trump’s trip, and outline where we go from here.


If you missed last weeks webcast be sure to watch it.


Egypt Positioned for Working with New Silk Road

Nov. 7, 2017 -“Egypt supports the Belt and Road Initiative that connects China with the world’s continents through massive networks of land and sea routes,” Ibrahim Mahlab, the Egyptian President’s assistant for strategic and national projects, told a forum in Cairo. Describing the China-Egypt ties as “strong, unique and sustainable,” Mahlab, a former prime minister, expected the initiative to “restructure the traditional models of world trade.”

Egyptian and Chinese officials, businessmen, representatives of financial and economic institutions, as well as a delegation from the Communist Party of China, attended the Nov. 6 forum, on “Belt and Road–Together for a Better Future.” The participants at the forum, co-organized by Sharaf Foundation for Sustainable Development and the Chinese Embassy in Cairo, discussed ways to boost China-Egypt economic, trade and cultural relations, and the available investment opportunities.

“Being a central point between Africa and Asia, Egypt is also a focal axis of Arab and African trade,” Mahlab said, highlighting the significance of Egypt’s strategic location for the Belt and Road Initiative. He noted that Egypt has carried out massive infrastructure projects over the past three years that have greatly upgraded the country’s energy supplies and road networks which could help future investors in the country.


China and Russia: “Silk Road on Ice”

Nov. 8, 2017 -Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev was in Beijing for regularly-scheduled meetings with his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang, and he also met with President Xi Jinping. Xi told Medvedev that China and Russia should create a “Silk Road on the Ice,” and fully “integrate the Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union.” According to a Xinhua wire, “Xi called on both sides to increase the content of

technological innovation in their cooperation and integrate the Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union. China and Russia should cooperate in the development and utilization of the Arctic navigation channels to create a `Silk Road on the Ice,’ Xi said.”

Xinhua’s report adds: “Xi said China is ready to work with Russia to expand cooperation in various fields, maintain close coordination in international affairs and promote the building of a community of shared future… Xi pointed out China and Russia should give full play to the prime ministers’ regular meetings and enhance cooperation on energy, equipment manufacturing, agriculture and aerospace.”

Medvedev, for his part, transmitted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s greetings to Xi, and his congratulations on the recently concluded CPC Congress and Xi’s re-election as the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. The Congress, Medvedev said, “carries great significance to both China and the world.”

Medvedev also met with China’s Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who noted that “Medvedev is the first foreign leader to visit China after the 19th National Congress of the CPC,” Xinhua reported. “This has shown the closeness and high level of China-Russia ties,” Li stated. He also stated that, as affirmed in the 19th CPC Congress, China will “share development opportunities with countries around the world,” Xinhua reported.


New China-Europe `Silk Road’ Line Inaugurated in Azerbaijan

Oct. 30 — There was great enthusiasm in Baku, Azerbaijan today as the head of state of that country, Ilham Aliyev, was joined by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in a ceremony to inaugurate the new 826 km. Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which was set to take off on its maiden trip to Europe. According to {The Daily Sabah}, the BTK is a “key link in the modern Silk Road Railway” that will carry goods between Beijing and London. Initially, it is expected to carry almost one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight annually, but aims to transport up to 50 million tons a year when it reaches its full potential.

Also present at the ceremony was the U.S. ambassador Robert Cekuta, who noted that the BTK railroad is an important part of the New Silk Road, the Azeri news service APA reported.
President Erdogan, who is also in Baku for a two-day visit commemorating the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan, said at the ceremony that “Baku-Tblisi-Kars is part of a big Silk Road and it’s important that we have implemented this project using our own funds,” most of the $1 billion of which came from Azerbaijan’s state oil fund. Erdogan emphasized that the project will bring “peace, security, stability and prosperity and will contribute to the development of our countries.”

The {Daily Sabah} points out that, as “one of the land routes in the scope of China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative passes through Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the railway projects being launched in the context of the `Iron Silk Road’ have gained significance as they are connecting the regions.” The transportation from Georgia to Turkey is provided via a border tunnel, some 2,375 meters of which are within Turkey’s borders, while 2,070 meters are on the Georgian side. Thanks to the railway network linking the Middle East to Europe via the 13.6 km Marmaray rail connection, “transportation between Turkey and Asia, the Caucasus and European countries will be easier,” {Sabah} predicts.

The new line will reduce travel time from China to Europe to 15 days, twice as fast as the sea route, at half the cost of air freight. Trains can depart from Chinese cities, cross into Kazakhstan at the Khorgos Gateway, be transported across the Caspian Sea by ferry to the new port of Baku and then be loaded onto the BTK to head for Europe. President Aliyev said that several European countries are interested in the project and that his government is in talks with them. Kazakhstan is very interested in transporting goods via the BTK line.


Portugal Signs Action Plan with China on Maritime Silk Road

Nov. 1, 2017 -Portugal’s Minister of the Sea, Ana Paula Vitorino, accompanied by representatives of 39 Portuguese port and related companies and industries, is in China for a busy, eight-day visit (10/28-11/4) to concretize Portugal’s participation in the Maritime Silk Road. That includes hopes for some $2.5 billion in Chinese investments in expanding container and other facilities in the Portuguese ports of Sines (towards the south), Lisbon (in the center), and Leixoes (towards the north), as well as in areas of “blue biotechnology,” oceanic aquaculture, and marine industry. The first of two planned high-level seminars took place in Beijing on Monday, with representatives of 86 Chinese companies present. Vitorino’s Chinese counterpart, State Oceanic Administration Director Wang Hong, there spoke of maritime cooperation as an “essential part” of Chinese-Portuguese cooperation, and discussed China’s overall view of the “ocean as an important doorway for China to embrace the whole world.”

Vitorino, for her part, said that “Portugal wants to declare itself a global logistical hub in the Atlantic area,” and “double the value of the blue economy,” to the level of becoming one of the five most sea-related economies in the world. She described Portugal as “a necessary stop on north-south Atlantic routes … [and] a required crossing point in east-west routes.”

That statement echoes Portuguese State Internationalization Secretary Jorge Costa Oliveira’s declarations at the May Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, that Portugal desires that “a maritime route to [the port of] Sines be included, and in addition, that the land rail Silk Road, which already goes from Chongqing to Madrid, also comes to Portugal.”

So far, Vitorino has signed an Action Plan with her Chinese counterpart, outlining collaboration on research and commercial projects as China and Portugal establish an expanded “blue economy” partnership. She met today with the President of the Development Bank of China. Vitorino also reported that agreements had been reached between Portuguese and Chinese companies to form consortia which would compete for various of the planned investment projects. No specific details were given, but the Portuguese businesses represented are leading port operators, construction companies, logistics operators, naval boatyard repair works, engineering, energy, aquaculture, and fish transformation companies, Macauhub reported.


Iran-Iraq-Syria Plan to Move Ahead on Historic Transnational ‘Land-Bridge’ Railroad

In November 2018, Iran, Iraq, and Syria reached a provisional agreement to build a “land-bridge” railroad and highway corridor extending from the Persian Gulf in Iran through Iraq to the Mediterranean port of Latakia in Syria, a distance of 1,570 km (975 miles). In combination with the Belt and Road Initiative, it could transform the intervening three nations. The construction of the first phase of the project is soon to begin.

The first phase is to build a 32 km railroad between Shalamcheh in southwestern Iran on the Iraq border, and Basra, Iraq. This involves building a few sections of rail line that are needed, and a bridge that would arch over the Arvand Rud/Shatt Al-Arab, a marsh-influenced waterway below the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.

The second, longer phase of the transport corridor would build the railroad, and some sections of highway, from Basra, 1,545 km to the Syrian port of Latakia on the Mediterranean.

The northern (red) and southern (green) routes of the land bridge. The southern route has upper and lower branches that pass, respectively, through al-Qaim/Albu Kamal and al-Tanf. Source: Adapted from map by Franc Milburn in Strategic Assessment (Israel) and updated by Hussein Askary.

The northern (red) and southern (green) routes of the land bridge. The southern route has upper and lower branches that pass, respectively, through al-Qaim/Albu Kamal and al-Tanf. Source: Adapted from map by Franc Milburn in Strategic Assessment (Israel) and updated by Hussein Askary.

With this as a backbone, goods and people could move from Iran, northward by the North-South corridor; from Iran eastward to China and the Pacific; or from Latakia, Syria westward to the Atlantic. This is especially important for the peoples of these three nations, who have been ravaged by war for decades. A tripartite meeting in July 2019 among the three nations’ transport officials confirmed “that the goal of the negotiations is to activate the Iranian-Iraqi-Syria load and transport corridor as a part of a wider plan for reviving the Silk Road.”

This transnational railway meshes perfectly with the plan that Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi signed during his signed Sept. 19-23, 2019 visit to Beijing, to set up an Iraqi-Chinese Reconstruction Fund, into which Iraq could deposit the revenues of 300,000 barels of oil/day, against which Chinese banks will issue credit to Chinese companies to reconstruct Iraq.

The financing for the transnational railway project was lined up when on Sept. 18, 2019, with the announcement that Iran’s Mostazafan Foundation, which is a large semi-Hamiltonian organization that runs hundreds of factories and commercial enterprises, would advance the majority of the financing.

A difficulty is that one of the Mostazafan’s companies, the Sina Bank, has been sanctioned by the United States, and it is not clear if the sanctions announced Jan. 10, 2020 by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will block even more of the Mostazafan Foundation’s activities, which could blow up the entire transnational project.

This leads to a higher point: the relentless attack on this region is the British Empire venom against the Belt and Road Initiative, the development of this region, and the world. Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s proposal to convene a three Presidents summit is urgent to raise the world to a higher dimensionality of thinking.


Call for Presidents Trump, Putin & Xi to Convene Emergency Summit to Address Danger of War

If the world is to escape a spiral of retaliations and counter-retaliations in the wake of the the killing of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units Deputy Commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis , the Presidents of the United States, Russia and China must convene an emergency summit to address the current crisis in Southwest Asia and the solutions to that crisis.

Seventy-five years ago, the United States, Russia and China were joined together in the global fight which defeated fascism, and today, these Presidents must act in concert to save the peace.

On January 3, Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche issued an emergency statement which concluded,

“It is clear, that among the three presidents, President Trump—who promised to end the endless wars and has already taken several steps in that direction—and Presidents Putin and Xi, there is the intention and the capability to outflank the maneuvers of the war-mongers and to establish a higher level of cooperation. That potential is the reason that the coup—Russiagate and now the Impeachment—are orchestrated against Trump. It is now the time for those three outstanding leaders to fulfill the potential that historical providence has bestowed upon them.”

The Crisis

Every world war and major war of the past century has been triggered by the British Empire’s geopolitical policy of permanent warfare, throwing nations against each other to maintain their power as a global elite.

Nowhere have the effects of that evil imperial policy of pitting nations, peoples, religions and factions against each other been more evident than in the Mideast, where that policy was codified by the Sykes-Picot Treaty established by the British and French imperial powers after World War I.

Understanding that history, Lyndon LaRouche, in a speech delivered 15 years ago, provided the framework in which to understand and act on today’s crisis.

“And when you look at the possibilities for this region, like Southwest Asia, the only chance will come, not from inside Southwest Asia. We will do, and must do, what we can, for that area, to try to stop the bloodshed, the agony, to prevent the war. But we will not succeed, until we change the history, change the world in which this region is contained.”

The Solution

Therefore, we call on President Trump to meet with Presidents Putin and Xi to not only address the immediate danger of war in Southwest Asia, but to do so with permanent effect by creating a New Paradigm for the world—to change the world, as LaRouche said.

Such a paradigm must be based on the principles of the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War in Europe. Warring nations broke the cycle of retribution and revenge and acted for the “advantage of the other.”

Such a paradigm must end geopolitics and imperialism, and establish a new financial and strategic architecture for the world, based on defense of the sovereignty and cultural integrity of all nations.

The U.S., China, Russia and other nations such as India, must act to establish a joint plan for the economic development of the entire region, informed by policies put forward by Lyndon LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche over the decades, and now given life by China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Such a policy will realize LaRouche’s vision: “There is a solution, a solution in principle. And the solution is: End this blasted imperialist system! And understand that we, as a people, must develop our spiritual culture; that is, the creative powers of mankind, to carry further the development of mankind.”

A PDF of this call to action can be found here.


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