It all started with the Vladimir Putin–Xi Jinping summit in Moscow on June 5. Far from a mere bilateral, this meeting upgraded the Eurasian integration process to another level. The Russian and Chinese presidents discussed everything from the progressive interconnection of the New Silk Roads with the Eurasia Economic Union, especially in and around Central Asia, to their concerted strategy for the Korean Peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (left) hug during their meeting before a session of the Heads of State Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Photo: AFP / Grigory Sysoev / Sputnik
A particular theme stood out: They discussed how the connecting role of Persia in the Ancient Silk Road is about to be replicated by Iran in the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And that is non-negotiable. Especially after the Russia-China strategic partnership, less than a month before the Moscow summit, offered explicit support for Tehran signaling that regime change simply won’t be accepted, diplomatic sources say.
Putin and Xi solidified the roadmap at the St Petersburg Economic Forum. And the Greater Eurasia interconnection continued to be woven immediately after at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, with two essential interlocutors: India, a fellow BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and SCO member, and SCO observer Iran.
At the SCO summit we had Putin, Xi, Narendra Modi, Imran Khan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sitting at the same table. Hanging over the proceedings, like concentric Damocles swords, were the US-China trade war, sanctions on Russia, and the explosive situation in the Persian Gulf.
Rouhani was forceful – and played his cards masterfully – as he described the mechanism and effects of the US economic blockade on Iran, which led Modi and leaders of the Central Asian “stans” to pay closer attention to Russia-China’s Eurasia roadmap. This occurred as Xi made clear that Chinese investments across Central Asia on myriad BRI projects will be significantly increased.
Russia-China diplomatically interpreted what happened in Bishkek as “vital for the reshaping of the world order.” Crucially, RIC – Russia-India-China – not only held a trilateral but also scheduled a replay at the upcoming Group of Twenty summit in Osaka. Diplomats swear the personal chemistry of Putin, Xi and Modi worked wonders.
The RIC format goes back to old strategic Orientalist fox Yevgeny Primakov in the late 1990s. It should be interpreted as the foundation stone of 21st-century multipolarity, and there’s no question how it will be interpreted in Washington.
India, an essential cog in the Indo-Pacific strategy, has been getting cozy with “existential threats” Russia-China, that “peer competitor” – dreaded since geopolitics/geo-strategy founding father Halford Mackinder published his “Geographical Pivot of History” in 1904 – finally emerging in Eurasia.
RIC was also the basis on which the BRICS grouping was set up. Moscow and Beijing are diplomatically refraining from pronouncing that. But with Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro seen as a mere Trump administration tool, it’s no wonder that Brazil has been excluded from the RIC summit in Osaka. There will be a perfunctory BRICS meeting right before the start of the G20 on Friday, but the real deal is RIC.
Pay attention to the go-between
The internal triangulation of RIC is extremely complex. For instance, at the SCO summit Modi said that India could only support connectivity projects based on “respect of sovereignty” and “regional integrity.” That was code for snubbing the Belt and Roads Initiative – especially because of the flagship China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which New Delhi insists illegally crosses Kashmir. Yet India did not block the final Bishkek declaration.
What matters is that the Xi-Modi bilateral at the SCO was so auspicious that Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale was led to describe it as “the beginning of a process, after the formation of government in India, to now deal with India-China relations from both sides in a larger context of the 21st century and of our role in the Asia-Pacific region.” There will be an informal Xi-Modi summit in India in October. And they meet again at the BRICS summit in Brazil in November.
Putin has excelled as a go-between. He invited Modi to be the guest of honor at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok in early September. The thrust of the relationship is to show to Modi the benefits for India to actively join the larger Eurasia integration process instead of playing a supporting role in a Made in USA production.
That may even include a trilateral partnership to develop the Polar Silk Road in the Arctic, which represents, in a nutshell, the meeting of the Belt and Road Initiative with Russia’s Northern Sea Route. China Ocean Shipping (Cosco) is already a partner of the Russian company PAO Sovcomflot, shipping natural gas both east and west from Siberia.
Xi is also beginning to get Modi’s attention on the restarting possibilities for the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCMI) corridor, another major Belt and Road project, as well as improving connectivity from Tibet to Nepal and India.
Impediments, of course, remain plentiful, from disputed Himalayan borders to, for instance, the slow-moving Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – the 16-nation theoretical successor of the defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership. Beijing is adamant the RCEP must go into overdrive, and is even prepared to leave New Delhi behind.
One of Modi’s key decisions ahead is on whether to keep importing Iranian oil – considering there are no more US sanctions waivers. Russia is ready to help Iran and weary Asian customers such as India if the EU-3 continue to drag the implementation of their special payment vehicle.
India is a top Iran energy customer. Iran’s port of Chabahar is absolutely essential if India’s mini-Silk Road is to reach Central Asia via Afghanistan. With US President Donald Trump’s administration sanctioning New Delhi over its drive to buy the Russian S-400 air defense system and the loss of preferred trade status with the US, getting closer to Bridge and Road – featuring energy supplier Iran as a key vector – becomes a not-to-be-missed economic opportunity.
With the roadmap ahead for the Russia-China strategic partnership fully solidified after the summits in Moscow, St Petersburg and Bishkek, the emphasis now for RC is to bring India on board a full-fledged RIC. Russia-India is already blossoming as a strategic partnership. And Xi-Modi seemed to be in sync. Osaka may be the geopolitical turning point consolidating RIC for good.
The article states that RIC agrees that regime change in Iran will not be allowed.
But the article does not describe what RIC will do to prevent it. All I have heard is that China is continuing (and even increasing) Iranian oil purchases and that Russia may be re-branding Iranian oil and selling it to the west. Add to that technical support given by Russia to the Iranian military. But has anyone heard of other actions that RIC might be taking to prevent regime change?
Iran wishes to redirect its economy. They have indicated an intent to become less dependent on the west and more self sufficient. It seems like this is a good opportunity for RIC to convince Iran to integrate itself into a Russian-Asian market.
Just holding the line should prevent regime change in Iran, and from what I understood the Russians offered to be the financial mechanism for Iran to continue selling oil to India since India is already committed to Russia’s military hardware.
Perhaps the vagueness is quite deliberate. Any specific details would merely help Washington to plan its attack.
Moreover, this way Washington will never know when it is about to hit a tripwire and get clobbered from eight directions.
Iran is on board to join the SCO, what’s to convince? Although I believe some ‘stan’ or other is blocking it at the moment. No doubt at some point, a collect conference call from PMX (PutinModiXi) will correct the situation.
The Sordid Barbarian head-loppers and journalist chippers have bought off Tajikistan, I believe, who are blocking Iran’s accession.
FWIW:
I do not have a link at this time but I recall the empire recently sent in one of its hatchmen obstructionists as ambassador to Tajikistan. This seems to be a fairly common modus operandi ala Ukraine in 2013-2014, now in Greece, maybe in Georgia.
Nothing in this article about empire’s obstructionist ambassador but it does give some historical detail on Tajik-Iranian relations:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/iran-tajikistan-towards-pragmatic-relations/5681748
Russia does have a missile frigate anchored in Havana at the moment. India has sent a few of her naval vessels towards the gulf. China you never know.
The US runs the risk of war with Russia and China over their strategic interests in Central Asia. Moscow and Beijing are confident and will not step down – cannot – because to abandon vital interests results in defeat. That is the lesson of history. Another lesson is nations end up getting the very war they seek to avoid. Of course the US says it has vital interests; to abandon them would invite existential threat. Avoiding war with Iran might remove the immediate danger of world war three – a threat to everyone’s interests. Ultimately history is not on their side.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Russia and China EXIST in and contiguous to Central Asia-Thanatopia does not.
This website link has a problem. When I cilick on it, a message says it is a security risk and could steal data or otherwise harm visitors. Please look into this.
the hug is sincere. historical.
Pepe is mistaken, in my opinion, to pin any hopes on Modi the Hindutva fascist. He’s an Imperial Trojan Horse in the RIC process, and his ‘heart’ belongs to Washington and Tel Aviv.
Can you think that it might be the other way round?
I certainly hope so.
But I don’t really think so.
When one looks at what Modi is doing domestically, it looks kind of rapacious. More like globalist, neocon, and social media financial fantasies than commonsense genuine economic development for India’s people that respects Indian culture and the Indian earth. Not to mention the Hindu supremacist agenda.
Katherine
Exactly, Katherine-Modi is nothing if not a neoliberal, and that, without strong central leadership, spells disaster for India’s hundreds of millions not living the ‘middle-class dream’. But, given India’s dreadful infrastructure, heavy pollution and worsening climate destabilisation crisis, that dream is really a worsening nightmare.
Modi is as much Hindu supremacist as Putin is a KGB mass murderer. If you want to get real news from India, follow local language news. The narrative in English media is set by the India’s fifth column or crony neo liberal globalist elites who are out of touch with people. Modi has the same fake news problem as Putin or Trump. You can see from link below Muslims celebrating Modi’s win just like every Indian.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2019/05/looks_like_indias_modi_getting_same_fakenews_treatment_trump_gets_on_minorities.html
Modi is reversing the Wahabi sunni appeasement in India. One of the big reason he was elected in 2014 and 2019 was Shias and Muslim woman voting for him. The feminists, liberals and neo liberals who are supposed to be the champions of women’s rights did nothing for the women and hate Modi.
Here is the video in local language showing muslim women out in the streets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXsaXZuDqbY
Translation: Muslim women never took to streets before but they came out in support of their brother Modi. They consider him part of their family. Want protection and education.
Here is another video of muslim women, they came out defying a Fatwa by local radical wahabi Mosque not to vote or support Modi. Skip to 2:50 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMlkCBDvu2I
Translation: Every one treated as vote bank, no one did anything. We are poor, because of Modi offering scholarship our kids are in school. He helped us built toilets and provided gas connections so we don’t cook with wood.
Here is another video in local language, a radical sunni husband divorcing his wife for supporting Modi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t2NOSTNFMc
Here is another huge rally of Muslims for Modi.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qevn7a4xufw
Here is another one, packed saudi airport by indian muslim women.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O2CDYgLEqY
Modi’s party won 62/115 seats where muslims are swing voters, the main opposition party supported by these elites won just 23 seats. Some of these seats won by Modi’s party had more than 50% muslim voters.
Why do Muslims support Modi?
1. Development for every one including muslims, provided electricity, gas, helped them building toilets for poorest of Indians. Health care for the poorest.
2. Passed ordinance to make Instant Triple Talaq(divorce) and Nika halala (basically a rape) against the women illegal. Most islamic countries have banned it but Indian governments never did because of wahabi Appeasement.
Here is the video in english which explains the practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWJ4zCmWyTk
3. First time in modern India, a government completed 5 years with out corruption and lobbyists. Trump promised to drain the swamp, but Modi actually did clean the Indian swamp.
4. Modi’s five year had lowest in crime rate involving minorities and India was communal riot free.
The Indian fifth column or swamp is widely known as Lutyens Delhi or Khan Market gang. That is discussion for another day to really understand corruption, wahhabism packaged as liberalism in India.
Follow the local news and become brainwashed as most of the indians have become.
The way you write mimics the mischievous indian pro-government journalists. You do realize that by attempting to fool Mulga you are fooling none but yourself. You divert from your party’s stance and your media propaganda that muslims hate hindus and modi (using which modi actually won the election).
I hope you do realize that the people in the video belong to BJP’s (modi’s party) minority cell and would obviously come in support and vote for their party which is being used to show as the whole shia and muslim women voted for modi (the world is strange, there exist zionist muslims and trump supporting muslims). BTW, even RSS has it’s own minority cell (the founders of RSS were staunch anti-muslims).
It would be strange for women to vote for BJP after the rape cause of a muslim girl (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/06/10/six-hindu-men-convictedover-rape-murder-muslim-girl-8-case-fanned/) where the rapists had support of the BJP and even held rallies in support of the rapists. Indians shias know that the BJP and modi are zionist sympathizers, who threaten shia resistance axis. Supporting modi would mean betraying their shia brothers in the ME.
Read this report to know who indian muslims voted for –
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-27615592
Attacks on minorities grew under modi-
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/world/reports-of-hate-crime-cases-have-spiked-in-india/
Scams under the modi regime- (this quora thread has lot of them)
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-scams-of-Narendra-Modi?share=1
You probably dont realize that modi has inadvertently become a Wahhabi appeaser by buying saudi oil which would fund saudi mischief. This situation would become even funnier when india would replace iran oil with that of saudi once the USA waivers end (how would the indian shias interpret it? did their beloved modi for whom they voted throw their iranian brethren under the bus)
Well, if Modi is really against the Wahhabists, and for decent Moslems, then I have misjudged him there. Come to think of it, I have tended to judge him on what the local Sinophobes and stooges of the USA (ie our entire media and political sewer)have asserted is, or should be, India’s role as a loyal stooge of the USA and balance against China. Time for a re-assessment perhaps. His blocking the Belt and Road programs, which would be such a boon to India does still trouble me. Have you got a cogent explanation for that madness, particularly seeing as how greatly China-India trade has already grown?
I am not paying as complete attention as I should, but wouldn’t Russia and China be aware of the possibilities of an Indian Trojan Horse attempt to derail Asia integration, and are prepared to deal effectively with any such possibility?
and what could India do from inside to derail and harm Asian integration enough to derail it?
that seems well nigh impossible at this stage..or am I wrong?
and if India could indeed harm Asia to that extent would that not be risking war..a war that India cannot win?
of course A war that derails Asia at the cost of India and whatever price the rest of Asia pays would be exactly what the empire desires. is Modi so ridiculously stupid that he is prepared to pay the Indian nation as price for the success of the Khazars in keeping their world domination going?
Mark Esper, who replaced Pentagon chief Patrick Shanahan last week, arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for a two-day security conference with fellow NATO defence ministers.
Russia and China remain the US’s main global strategic competitors, and Moscow is the “instigator” of aggression in Europe, newly minted Secretary of Defence Mark Esper has claimed.
“As we all know, the instigator of aggression in Europe today is Russia. Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Russia still seeks veto power over its neighbours, and interferes in the sovereign democratic processes of other countries,” the Pentagon chief said, without elaborating.
Esper learns quickly as the mode is throw out charges “without elaboration” to keep the chillen freightened and the defense budgets moving: trump, pompeo, bolton are masters of the “art.”
when was the last time one heard any details as to just what pompeo was alleging. e.g. hezbullah in Venezuela; never any elaboration, “diplomacy by threats and bullying by clowns.
Esper is plainly just another lying Imperialist thug, with a sub-psychotic gift for projecting Thanatopia’s own crimes onto its victims. A brief trawl through US news television shows the usual 100% agreement that it is Iran attacking the USA. The abrogation of the JCPOA, the murderous sanctions regime, totally illegal, and the vicious extra-teritorial thuggery of forcing all other countries to join in, or else, and the forty years of US aggression, plus the ring of US bases surrounding Iran don’t exist for these presstitute vermin. Iran’s existence is ‘aggression’ enough. And one odious, brain-dead bimbo, even had the filthy audacity to declare that the ‘entire world’ was against ‘Iran’s aggression’.
Hard to believe that this empire support to Hong Kong opposition will not come up between trump and XI; NED has been racing around the world fomenting unrest with taxpayer dollars since the days of ray gun when his cia chief casey organized it. Multi million dollar budgets and they talk of global order (sic).
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-color-revolution-struggles-hong-kong/5681898
Either the CIA really have their stuff together in Hong Kong, or the Chinese have been moderately successful at convincing a few American alt-media suckers that the Hong Kong Protests are entirely American orchestrated and the people of Hong kong are dumbos for not wanting to have themselves sent to the Chinese equivalent of Guantanamo Bay.
While there’s no doubt that the U.S. Administration is licking its chops at unrest in Hong Kong and is definitely involved in it the same way ANTIFA thugs invite themselves into every legitimate gathering, I do get that many of us have an erection at the empire losing out to the Chinese, but between you and me, the Beijing regime just as much deserves to be wiped from the pages of history, drained of its swampiness, and whatever other slogan you like. Just because the killing and oppression knows to stay within its borders, doesn’t mean we need to set up a cheerleader squad for it.
Altho your reply was to my posting of a link to an article about that wonderful org NED with albright, nuland et al alumni (they generally belong to the neo con ilk), led by that champion of DEMOCRACY, Karl Gershman, I can never be sure whether to respond.
I have not by a long shot gotten to the erection status but I will affirm that any, say any effort, to thwart or defend against the fomenting of disorder, regime change, by the soros’, the neds, the ziocons, will earn my affirmation.
I also have not gotten to the point of setting up a cheerleading squad but i will say the the historical efforts of the cia, the mossad, the zionists turn my stomach because they are evil to the core and need to be disavowed by any human being.
if it comes down to a test of which is the greater level of evil. I doubt any argument would be pursuasive to the fanatics from the other side for very long. So that is a useless effort.
I wouldn’t touch Johnno’s ‘contributions’ with a barge-poll.
Agreed! Tried to post reply to you but was blocked for some reason-violated my own rules with a barge pole.
So long as nobody dares to bring up Hong Kong, I guess they will be a hit.
I just met someone, a Chinese, who lives in Hong Kong. He tells me that the number of demonstrators while is 100,000, quite a lot, but not 1,000,000. He dismissed the demonstrations as not being valid.
Having spent a fair amount of time in China over the course of several years, 2007-2015, I was impressed by the rise in living standards and the return of traditional Chinese culture.
As an American, I’d have to say that Chinese as a people, at least the many that I met in my travels, were intelligent, polite and knowledgeable. China has been through hell that the West put it through for 200 or so years. It was the arrogant Westerners, whose bad manners were met with equal contempt. Show people you respect their culture, and they’ll love and respect you. And vis versa.
And like Russia, has shown far more patience and wisdom than the Americans.
To wit: All over Asia, from SE Asia, to India, to China and Russia, you’ll find hundreds of micro ethnic groups who have been living together for centuries if not millennia. It hasn’t always been a bed of roses, with numerous wars and conflicts.
But no other culture, other than Western European/North American/Anglo has committed the massive genocides that the Americans, British, Australians did in the lands they invaded. None.
Human nature is not predictable with highs and lows, but at this point, the Non West seems to have a better appreciation for cooperation and negotiation, than the warmongering UK/US/France/Germany/Israel axis, who have lived for war for most of the past few hundred years, if not longer.
So this commenter will give them the benefit of the doubt. Way more than Perfidious Albion, Forked Tongue Perpetual Treaty Breaker USA and Zionist Israel.
Regarding the G20, the Financial Times (UK) has a big interview with Putin today (28/6/19) – his picture is on the front page.
Putin knows the Anglo game well. He talks with them because he knows he was beaten them. The financial community of Washington and London already knows this which us why he spoke to their newspaper as a victor. More than any other person Vladimir V Putin has broken the Anglo American empire.
Russia method – Defeat the terrorist empire puppets then stabilise . First in Chechenya 2000, then Ossetia 2008, Donetsk and Krym 2014, Syria 2015- and in Venezuela and Iran 2019, the Russians defeated the ‘democratic moderate rebels’ at a earlier stage, before they could even fight. Then hosted the Winter Olympics and World Cup without any terrorism or incidents. Stopping Color Revolutions in Turkey and Algeria. All these can be called Russian victories. Looking at the map from Russians view- China is pro Russia, India is pro Russia, Central Asia is pro Russian, Latin America is pro Russia, Africa is pro Russian, Vietnam is pro Russia, Iran is pro Russian, even in Europe, Belarus, Moldova, Serbia, Spain, Italy and Hungary are pro Russian, but some Anglo mouths keep saying Russia is isolated, hated and weak? Actually Israel, USA and England are the most hated nations by the rest of the world. Russia is seen as a stable, reliable force.
Exactly-as Putin said of gays in Russia, it’s ‘live and let live’, but they will not tolerate ‘gay rights’ beings used as a society destabilising weapon by Western regime change organs. Live and let live among nations is far preferred, sensibly, to the West’s daemonic impulse to control all other countries, with different cultures, histories and social structures, and force them to follow the neoliberal model of insatiable elite greed, greedy individualism and the ‘war of all against all’ as a social system, and craven obeisance to Washington and Tel Aviv. Or else your country will be destroyed and your people slaughtered. No wonder Russia and China come up ‘trumps’.
Canadian PM Trudeau severely underperformed representing his country, if that was his task.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-28/trump-unleash-hell-europe-after-eu-says-spv-circumvent-swift-and-iran-sanctions-now
Special Purpose Vehicle designed to allow countries to trade with iran outside of restrictive us measures now operational. Pompeo/hook/bolton/trump on watch.
Crude drops, dollar not healthy.
Ahh… Pepe, it is so nice to read fact-driven, keen analytical rational, reasoning.
Wow!
So refreshing.
Thanks.
If India flips, by following a course of ignoring and/or circumventing Iranian energy exports, then… the empire’s planned imperative, regime change, must be on life support and fading fast, non?!
Then we know the empire has been … neutered.
It still doesn’t mean that it isn’t dangerous (especially to the entrapped citizens).
But neutered, for sure.
It is already past the point at which topics that Russia, China, and India agree on, will happen regardless of the empire’s toothless rantings.
If the new payment vehicle between Iran and the EU is operational, and Russia is also available as a means to facilitate transactions with Iran, does that give Iran the capacity to circumvent American sanctions?
If so, which sanctions in particular and to what extent can they be circumvented with either the EU/Iran vehicle or thought Russia?
If Iran is able to now operate as a normal country and enable it’s economy to reach it’s full potential it will be able to afford more defense capabilities, which will increase their hand in the regional balance of power, which I’m sure certain countries don’t like very much… countries which may be allies to the EU. Is the EU really pissing it’s allies off in order to save Iran from it’s ‘ally’ – the USA? If so, what is making the EU-Iran relationship so valuable to the EU for them to make this sacrifice?
Even if the payment system is working.That only gives companies the “ability” to trade with Iran. Those companies have to “want” to do so.And they are so terrified of US sanctions that won’t do the trading.Countries need to sanction the US if any of their companies are attacked by US sanctions.But none of them have the backbone to do it.
If one wants to start the day off with a blast of nausea, take a look on y tube at the sit down dinner trump arranged with the saudi thugs at G-20. The entire trump chickenhawk cabinet to include foreign agent kushner were in attendance for this pandering and fawning fest.
Will not post link-do not recommend, just saying.
Vesti News
Russian Pundits: Nothing Can Be Resolved by G20! No One Leader Commands Enough Respect!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIN6vvs8LCM
RT
Putin speaks to the press following the G20 Summit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4uvJDGAaNA