Pepe Escobar: Russia, China Map Out New Economic Order in Beijing

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[–]therazorx👹🧹🥇 The road to truth is often messy. 👹📜🕵️🎖️ 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

I disagree with only one single point;

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.

and

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.

If Egypt goes further into alignment with BRICs, it won't really be a western controlled chokepoint anymore.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

It won't be, true. But if the West decided to get belligerent about it, it would be harder to defend than these new commodity routes they're planning. It won't necessarily disappear, but it won't play as critical a role as it now does.

[–]therazorx👹🧹🥇 The road to truth is often messy. 👹📜🕵️🎖️ 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

oh yeah most definitely, the only main issue with the Suez canal under a BRICs aligned Egypt is once ships reach the Mediterranean sea, but Turkey could definitely solve that problem.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

And we're busily working to piss Turkey off even moreso than we already had.

[–]therazorx👹🧹🥇 The road to truth is often messy. 👹📜🕵️🎖️ 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Erdogan isn't stupid.

He's not my favorite person in the world, far from it, but he's not stupid. That is definitely going to end badly for the West.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I agree, I think Macgregor pegged him right as slippery but he's what my dad would call "sly like a fox" given how long he's survived politically and how he leverages his relationships with the West and with Russia to his own benefit.

[–]therazorx👹🧹🥇 The road to truth is often messy. 👹📜🕵️🎖️ 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

He is.

On a related note;

Turkey's Erdogan says Hamas is not terrorist organisation, cancels trip to Israel

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

"Erdogan's comments condemned by Israel"

Gosh, I'm shocked.

[–]therazorx👹🧹🥇 The road to truth is often messy. 👹📜🕵️🎖️ 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

This is big though. Like super big.

Maybe they'll try to expel Turkey from NATO or something.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

They may try, they've always treated Turkey with condescension and barely concealed contempt, as more part of the jungle than the garden, because European political leaders are white supremacy colonialists at heart. On the other hand, Turkey has the largest, best-trained and best-equipped military in NATO after the US. Without these two, NATO countries would be hard pressed to defend themselves.

[–]RandomCollection 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

It was inevitable that there would be a lot more cooperation between the Chinese and Russians. The fact that it is now an alliance against the US is a major failure of US geopolitics

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

And you have to wonder whether the idiots running things didn't realize China and Russia had been improving their relations for some time and/or that the US saber-rattling against each of them would further cement their alliance. From what I've read there were plenty of "experts" saying that would never happen, but their ignorance about both countries is only exceeded by their arrogance toward everyone who's not them.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Experts in Russian language, culture, and diplomacy were retired and turfed out in the "quiet" years while experts in other arenas jockeyed for power. Then the Syrian civil war came along and the foreign policy folks realized the diplomatic corps and State Dept. had lost 2 generations of people who knew the language and history. Enrollments in Middlebury College's Russian language immersion program skyrocketed, but a crash course in basics couldn't replace the lost knowledge, experience, and contacts of two generations of career Russian specialists. I suspect that hole remains.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Sadly true. And simultaneously, the rise to power of the "we make our own reality" neocons. No wonder things are so effed up.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Unfortunately, the resources at their command mean they can inflict their reality on us and the rest of the world, with real-world consequences that splash over those who inhabit a different (and more realistic) reality. Our impotence to affect what they're unleashing on us is frustrating and frightening. Here, the Duran guys discuss what they see as the neocons' now-inevitable war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vQXLyrCi_0&t=1847s&ab_channel=TheDuran (36 mins)

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Where are the voices of sanity? Is everyone in DC insane or just too cowardly to point out the cliff we're headed toward? Better to be a Cassandra than a Nero.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No answer to your Q (sane people don't seek power or are sidelined in insane times?); agree strongly with your 2nd sentence.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Related: China Belt and Road influence and Middle East policy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_tmSs2cmEY&ab_channel=TheDuran (1 hr)

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Excellent, hadn't seen this one.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's heavily directed to the ME, but the BRI gets time.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Excerpt:

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.

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.

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. ["Who controls the Heartland controls the World Island" with some 50% of the world's resouces]

See article for more on some specific projects, e.g., Russia-Mongolia-China gas pipeline; North-South corridor in the European part of Russia from the Baltic to Iran; the International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC) with main hubs in Russia, Iran and India; and The Northern Sea Passage to the Arctic Ocean.

[–]ageingrockstar 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

as the (attached) map shows

Btw, has anyone found this map? Can't see it in the article. I thought it might perhaps be missing because Pepe had originally posted this article somewhere else and the map failed to make the reprint but that doesn't seem to be the case (seems like he wrote specifically for Sputnik).

Perhaps the map is contained in an official report from the conference ?

[–]ageingrockstar 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

featuring BRI, BRICS, EAEU and SCO

Quick self-test : Can you expand out each of these four acronyms ?

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

BRI is explained in the excerpt. The rest are organizations for facilitating trade relationships though SCO goes well beyond that, and I'd say they work more in parallel than in concert with each other. As the article spells out, both Russia and China are focused on expanding trade opportunities.

Brazil, Russia, India and China were the original members of BRICS, with South Africa admitted about a year later and it became BRICS 11 with the admission this year (to take effect in January 2024) of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina. According to the linked article, Indonesia will likely be admitted next year, and there's a long list of other countries that have applied or stated the intention to. It's been around since 2009, I think, but it's only taken a more solid shape over the past few years and continues to evolve slowly in terms of what its goals will be and how it will accomplish them.

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) is comprised of former Soviet republics - Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia - and as the name suggests is focused on facilitating economic cooperation. There's a website with more information, some of it in English.

Wikipedia describes the Shangai Cooperation Organisation as a "political, economic, international security and defence organization... the largest regional organization in terms of geographic scope and population." Both of these circumstances make it one of the more significant organizations when you look at the list of members, observers and dialogue partners and consider the role it plays in bringing countries with historical grievances together as part of a larger mission, e.g., India and China.

[–]ageingrockstar 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Excellent answer but I probably should have made it clearer that this wasn't directed at you specifically (if you thought it was). It was for everyone (who wanted) to do a quick test on themselves. I thought the last two might be somewhat lesser recognised than the first two.

[–]penelopepnortneyBecome ungovernable[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No worries, I just did my self-test out loud ;-D

I have a bookmark folder where I collect articles, etc. on the various multi-nation consortiums so I can better understand the context of what I read.