by Pepe Escobar for Sputnik International
The next BRICS summit, in Goa, is less than two months away. Compared to only two years ago, the geopolitical tectonic plates have moved with astonishing speed. Most BRICS nations are mired in deep crisis; Brazil’s endless political/economic/institutional debacle may yield the Kafkaesque impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff.
BRICS is in a coma. What’s surviving is RC: the Russia/China strategic partnership. Yet even the partnership seems to be in trouble – with Russia still attacked by myriad metastases of Hybrid War. The – Exceptionalist – Hegemon remains powerful, and the opposition is dazed and confused.
Or is it?
Slowly but surely – see for instance the possibility of an https://www.rt.com/op-edge/357205-turkey-erdogan-russia-iran-isis/
ATM (Ankara-Tehran-Moscow) coalition in the making – global power continues to insist on shifting East. That goes beyond Russia’s pivoting to Asia; Germany’s industrialists are just waiting for the right political conjunction, before the end of the decade, to also pivot to Asia, conforming a BMB (Berlin-Moscow-Beijing) coalition.
Germany already rules over Europe. The only way for a global trade power to solidify its reach is to go East. NATO member Germany, with a GDP that outstrips the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is not even allowed to share information with the “Five Eyes” secret cabal.
President Putin, years ago, was keen on a Lisbon-to-Vladivostok emporium. He may eventually be rewarded – delayed gratification? – by BMB, a trade/economic union that, combined with the Chinese-driven One Belt, One Road (OBOR), will eventually dwarf and effectively replace the dwindling post-WWII Anglo-Saxon crafted/controlled international order.
This inexorable movement East underscores all the interconnections – and evolving connectivity – related to the New Silk Roads, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the BRICS’s New Development Bank (NDB), the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Eurasia Economic Union (EEU). The crux of RC, the Russia-China strategic partnership, is to make the multipolar, post-Atlantic world happen. Or, updating Ezra Pound, to Make It New.
Containing RC
Russia’s pivot to Asia is of course only part of the story. The core of Russia’s industries, infrastructure, population is in the west of the country, closer to Europe. BMB would allow a double pivot – simultaneously to Europe and Asia; or Russia exploiting to the max its Eurasian character. Not accidently this is absolute anathema for Washington. Thus the predictable, ongoing no holds barred exceptionalist strategy of preventing by all means necessary closer Russia-Germany cooperation.
In parallel, pivoting to Asia is also essential because that’s where the
overwhelming majority of Russia’s future customers – energy and otherwise – are located. It will be a long, winding process to educate Russian public opinion about the incalculable value for the nation of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Yet that has already started. And it will be in full fruition by the middle of the next decade, when all the interpolated New Silk Roads will be online.
“Containment” of RC will continue to be the name of the exceptionalist game – whatever happens on November 8. As far as the industrial-military-security-surveillance-corporate media complex is concerned, there will be
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2016/08/18/there-will-be-no-reset-with-russia/?utm_term=.26da5ea9afc5 no reset. Proxies will be used – from failed state Ukraine to Japan in the East China Sea, as well as any volunteering Southeast Asian faction in the South China Sea.
Still the Hegemon will be in trouble to contain both sides of RC simultaneously. NATO does not help; its trade arm, TPP, may even collapse in the high seas before arriving on shore. No TPP – a certainty in case Donald Trump is elected in November – means the end of US economic hegemony over Asia. Hillary Clinton knows it; and it’s no accident President Obama is desperate to have TPP approved during a short window of opportunity, the lame-duck session of Congress from November 9 to January 3.
Against China, the Hegemon alliance in fact hinges on Australia, India and Japan. Forget about instrumentalizing BRICS member India – which will never fall into the trap of a war against China (not to mention Russia, with which India traditionally enjoys very good relations.)
Japan’s imperial instincts were reawakened by Shinzo Abe. Yet hopeless economic stagnation persists. Moreover, Tokyo has been prohibited by the US Treasury Dept. to continue unleashing quantitative easing. Moscow sees as a long-term objective to progressively draw Japan away from the US orbit and into Eurasia integration.
Dr. Zbig does Desolation Row
The Pentagon is terrified that RC is now a military partnership as well.
Compared to Russia’s superior high-tech weaponry, NATO is a kindergarten mess; not to mention that soon Russian territory will be inviolable to any Star Wars-derived scheme. China will soon have all the submarines and “carrier-killer” missiles necessary to make life for the US Navy hell in case the Pentagon harbors funny ideas. And then there are the regional details – from Russia’s permanent air base in Syria to military cooperation with Iran and, eventually, disgruntled NATO member Turkey.
No wonder such exceptionalist luminary ideologues as Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski – foreign policy mentor to President Obama – are supremely http://www.the-american-interest.com/2016/04/17/toward-a-global-realignment/ dejected.
When Brzezinski looks at progressive Eurasia integration, he simply cannot fail to detect how those “three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy” he outlined in https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Chessboard-American-Geostrategic-Imperatives/dp/B005OSFX0A/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472277027&sr=1-1&keywords=the+grand+chessboard
The Grand Chessboard are simply dissolving; “to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.”
Those GCC vassals – starting with the House of Saud – are now terrified about their own security; same with the hysteric Baltics. Tributaries are not pliant anymore – and that includes an array of Europeans. The “barbarians” coming together are in fact old civilizations – China, Persia, Russia – fed up with upstart-controlled unipolarity.
Unsurprisingly, to “contain” RC, defined as “potentially threatening” (the Pentagon considers the threats are existential) Brzezinski suggests – what else – Divide and Rule; as in “containing the least predictable but potentially the most likely to overreach.” Still he doesn’t know which is which; “Currently, the more likely to overreach is Russia, but in the longer run it could be China.”
Hillary “Queen of War” Clinton of course does not subscribe to Brzezinski’s “could be” school. After all she’s the official, Robert Kagan-endorsed, neocon presidential candidate. She’s more in tune with https://pjmedia.com/michaelledeen/2016/08/24/the-war-intensifies/?singlepage=true this sort of wacky “analysis”.
So one should definitely expect Hillary’s “project” to be all-out hegemony expansion all across Eurasia. Syria and Iran will be targets. Even another war on the Korean Peninsula could be on the cards. But against North Korea, a nuclear power? Exceptionalistan only attacks those who can’t defend themselves. Besides, RC could easily prevent war by offering some strategic carrots to the Kim family.
In many aspects, not much has changed from 24 years ago when, only three months after the dissolution of the USSR, the Pentagon’s Defense Planning Guidance proclaimed:
“Our first objective is to prevent the reemergence of a new rival…This requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power. These regions include Western Europe, East Asia, the territory of the former Soviet Union and southwest Asia.”
Talk about a prescient road map of what’s happening right now; the “rival”, “hostile” power is actually two powers involved in a strategic partnership: RC.
Compounding this Pentagon nightmare, the endgame keeps drawing near; the next manifestations and reverberations of the never-ending 2008 financial crisis may eventually torpedo the fundamentals of the global “order” – as in the petrodollar racket/tributary scam.
There will be blood. Hillary Clinton smells it already – from Syria to Iran to the South China Sea. The question is whether she – and virtually the whole Beltway establishment behind her – will be mad enough to provoke RC and buy a one-way ticket to post-MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction) territory.
The whole game is about containing Russia-China, on behalf of israel
The Israelis rule the world, de facto, through their Judaic elite Fifth Columns in the West, who control the politics, MSM and finance through money power. It’s the same stratagem as in ages past, but currently it gives the Herrenvolk the greatest power any discrete group has ever wielded. Russia they could control again and split and loot as they did the USSR under the Quisling Yeltsin, and the gaggle of US Jews like Jeffrey Sachs whose ‘shock therapy’ somehow handed all the country’s wealth to a gang of Jewish oligarchs, while impoverishing almost the entire population. But China is the Big One, a world civilization where Judaic entryism and nepotism will not work as in the West, and where corruption by foreigners is frowned on, unlike in the West, where the corrupting foreigners were actually, often enough, born in the country, but whose loyalties lie elsewhere. China is the Judeofascist supremacists’ worse nightmare,
Very interesting… I am inclined to agree.
Wait! Are you saying that the Chinese are not interested in having their own holocaust museum in the middle of Tienanmen square? Is this not even worse than antisemitism? Utter historical indifference? How refreshing.
Not to burst your bubble or nothing but there is a Jewish museum in Shanghai.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Jewish_Refugees_Museum
Hundred-year plans gentlemen. Stop thinking short term. Parts of the universe have already fallen under legal patents and ownership.
Everyone loves money. Chinese or otherwise.
Ah, Frank, the Chinese had their own Holocaust, thirty million dead, ie a five times worse tragedy (if one wishes to make the calculation) than the Nazi Judeocide. Of course, in the West where ‘The Holocaust’ (I’ve even heard really eager arse-lickers drop the definite article, and just say ‘Holocaust’ as if for greater gravitas)is the State pseudo-religion, the genocide of Chinese by the Japanese, like all other genocides, massacres and hecatombs is simply ignored. But the Chinese, as far as I can see, are quite happy to be friendly towards all people, including Jews, so long as it is reciprocated. And many Jews undoubtedly will do so, but the Jewish elite are, in my opinion, very, very, untrustworthy, indeed.
To the two replies to me above: I hope it is a very small monument.
I totally agree with this viewpoint. This, of course means, that US and its Allies will be going into overdrive with Clinton pinned to the masthead in case she falls over. Biden will soon step forward should she faint
Why didn’t Syria/Russia react militarily, at least to some extent, when Turkish forces illegally invaded Syria? Failure to act has resulted in a US no-fly-zone
Is it possible that there is a secret Russia-Turkey agreement behind this?
Turkey could not have invaded syria without the approval of Russia, Turkey’s invasion was to do with kurds, even Damascus is silent about it since it is positive thing for Syria. Prior to this invasion turkish intelligence were in Damascus…one can guess what the discussion was about.
Article seems to be several days old.
Yesterday 28th in solitude of the weekend Germany clearly announced that TTiP for them is morte.
They couldn’t even get to agreeing on major block starting points, let alone minutiae.
Likely a major pre-condition was that they handover all their industrial process secrets (basically any unpatented info not in public domain).
Germany’s industrialists are just waiting for the right political conjunction, before the end of the decade, to also pivot to Asia, conforming a BMB (Berlin-Moscow-Beijing) coalition.
It may be just part of a political campaign… There will be elections soon.
As with Erdogan, anything Hollande or Merkel says is not to be taken too seriously.
He is crazy, they are moles. The French people need a bit more more marinating in ocean water with Burkini bits to become soft, tasty and ready for the TTIP pot.
And if that does not make them pliant enough, a quick suckle at Hollande’s notion of perfect womanhood (no, not young French starlets), the calloused ans weathered teats of Delacroix’s La Liberte, ought to do it.
This is coherent and clear analytics. He does not look through slit lenses or rose-colored glass.
He sees clearly the conditions, the trends and the state of things. He projects but a short distance ahead.
He has it right. BRICS is gone. It may heal and return. But after Modi. India is going it alone. It wants to play the old game of friend to the Hegemon, and antagonist to China while posturing as friend of Russia. South Africa always was a caboose. It has broken off and is way behind again. The US is destabilizing the Left in Brazil. Brazilian success is now failing. The sum of the parts was never more than R and C anyway when you looked closely. Brazil has a chance, but not now. And India under Singh was doing fine as a partner for progress. Modi is destroying the opportunity for teamwork.
Russia is laying out a strategy and it fits China. China is the weak one militarily and diplomatically. China’s strength is wealth. And that has taken several serious hits. So it needs Russia to hold Asia Pacific together.
Russia has been drawing in Japan. It makes sense to Abe. His war plans suit the Hegemon but not his economic plans in Eurasia. It is problematic that the Hegemon will allow Japan to integrate with Eurasia, starting in the Far East. But energy, Russia’s, is close and deliverable to Japan and it could mean huge cost savings for Japanese business and consumers.
NK is always a possible Russian diplomatic success. If it happens, Russia will boom economically as it links the Korean Peninsula to the Far East. The Hegemon resists losing South Korea with all its powers. THAAD missiles is part of the weight thrown upon the South Koreans. It now makes Seoul a target of both China and N.K. and probably Russia, also. There is a special closeness that Mrs. Park has with China. The South and China have excellent relationships. The US has been working for years to strain and separate those relations. THAAD is doing that already.
I will be glad to read an article for you. You should consider writing an analytic paper
Excellent comment, Larchmonter445. Yes, you are aware of many facts… and you know how to interprete them. I can see now that I had not, actually, understood very well what was really going on in the South China Sea. It makes sense, now. Many thanks!
As an Indian I can only weep for what the future will bring to many of my countrymen with the policies now adopted by the present Govt. This Hindu “Nationalist” outfit and tendency were toadies of the British earlier , were implicated in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and have now vaulted into power with crony capitalist support , a group known for illicit money and money-laundering. One only hopes that the nightmare ends soon.
Unfortunately for you the nightmare has just begun.
Excellent comment. India has come a long way from the days of the non aligned movement.Modi has definitely decided to align itself to the USA as evident by the LEMOA agreement signed this week. This allows USA and India to use each others military bases for logistics, spares, and refuelling. Since India will not be interested in South America, Canada, or Mexico, we all know who will be using Indian facilities. All part of China containment of course.
So yes BRICS is dead. India has cast it’s weight with the USA. The Russian response though will be interesting.
Pepe’s take is right on as usual, wonderful…..Thanks for posting it.The Duran and RT do not have it yet.
To me it seems that the picture of nobody knowing anything for sure would not be complete without taking in that there are experts out there who expect everything to be fine very soon. Especially the Germs, that some people outside Germany trust and love so much, are predicted by some to fight their first real war since 1945, and this for a good cause, and this against nobody else but America. As a longtime citizen of the country I am less hopeful, but, I hope you all agree, the picture of our near future would be less gaudy without this:
„For the past few weeks the wheels of geopolitics have been churning the mud during a summer “ceasefire.” That is now ending.
The German government has made a decisive break with the Khazarian mafia and has ordered its citizens to stockpile 10 days worth of emergency food supplies in preparation for a war of independence, according to both CIA and MI6 sources. In addition, the German government is mobilizing 600,000 militia members in preparation for this war, the sources say.
The trigger for this mobilization was a request by the Khazarian controlled US government for Germany to accept a massive false flag attack on its territory as an excuse for totalitarian Khazarian rule. The Germans have decided to refuse this request and are instead allying themselves with the Russians and effectively joining the UK and Turkey in a Western led move against the Khazarian controlled American government, the sources agree.
This information can be confirmed in a series of German government statements seen in the corporate media. These include the announcement of the emergency food supply request, a statement by the German foreign minister that Germany needs to work with Russia and a statement by the economy minister that the US Khazarian led TTIP trade agreement was dead in the water.
The German move is just the opening salvo of what is expected to be a decisive campaign to permanently end Khazarian control of the West and its remaining slave states.(…)“
from: http://benjaminfulfordtranslations.blogspot.de/2016/08/english-benjamin-fulford-29082016-full.html
bp
bp, I do wonder about the connection between Germany’s industrialists and the Bundeswehr. Escobar notes that German industrialists are waiting for political dynamics to shift, so the industrialists can shift to Eurasia. But if the BMWs for Russian Olympians are a fair indication, Bavaria under Seehofer (in open defiance of the CDU leadership) is already moving into Eurasia. So, we expect the rest of Germany to simply watch and wait for their turn to do what the Bavarians are already doing?? Could this create the internal tension or situation that would result in the use of the military to expedite the German industrialists’ Eurasian expansion?
And I hope Canada’s PM Trudeau doesn’t read this – no need to fill his head with ideas of leading some North American union, even if he would be a Xi/Putin agent in that role, I’m sure!! Let’s let him focus on Canada, ok? :-)
Who would show such an article to Prime Minister Hairdo? His Praetorian Guard of lusty Aryan Ukrainians from Stepan ‘Bandera’ Harper’s mountain hideout in the Province of Al Burdah?
” The Germans have decided to refuse this request and are instead allying themselves with the Russians and effectively joining the UK and Turkey in a Western led move against the Khazarian controlled American government, the sources agree.”
???. I think there’s something of a misunderstanding here in that you appear to equate the recent ‘Brexit’ as evidence for your thesis. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whereas there has been significant and growing resistance to TTIP across the EU, the current UK govt and any other of whatever political complexion will sign up to TTIP in a heartbeat, because of the AngloZionist nexus and in the case of Mrs May’s govt, as a refuge in difficulties to offset trading difficulties widely believed to arise in consequence of Brexit. Pivot toward Russia and away from the US? If only……..More and more peeps here in the UK are beginning to see that Russia, far from being the enemy is a great opportunity; our enemy is what you would call the Khazarian controlled monsters who infest he Beltway.
Pepe is an intelligent and interesting guy, but he really seems blinded by his hatred for America. His articles seem to sway between fear of the hegemon and dancing on his grave.
LV, Pepe doesn’t “hate America”. He hates the a-holes that blew the back of JFK’s head off and covered it up and made Americans fearful and stupid and mind-controlled.
He hates what they are doing to the world now.
Whether you are American or non-American, you should hate that also. It is called “evil”.
I think he went to college here for at least a year or two. He had a blast, evidently, because his book is full of colorful cultural (music, etc) references from everywhere he has been, including here.
The US no longer merits hatred. It merits derision.
I just want to add that Pepe Escobar is a great writer and I’ve really enjoyed reading his material over the past 12 years.
I have yet to see any comment here on the recent MSM manipulation of the congressional hearing of Brasil’s Dilma Rouseff, so I will add here my knowledge.
Globo network and many others around the world that follow their lead or collaborate with them (Example portuguese SIC) resorted to extreme manipulation on their coverage of the session.
Every time someone accused Dilma, the direct sound was available. When Dilma responded or was defended, the sound was cut off, and both the on studio host and a live at the congress reporter would just brainwash how corrupt Dilma was and how this procedure was just a proforma because she was already as good as gone.
The manipulation was obvious and shamefull. It was reported by several people around the world so the networks where prepared for that in advance.
This only reinstates the fact that Brasil’s process is a soft coup, created by corrupts whiling to save their asses from the “lavajato” process where most of the accusing senators where being accused (with overwhelming proof against them), managed externally by we-know-whom / powers-that-be.
Russia / China should address this situations ASAP or they will loose control of the B on brics !
Not so familiar with the situation in South africa, but heard rumours of “colourful” dissidence that fits the same patterns.
Read something somewhere that pointed India could very well be a soft spot too on the near term.
Again, if not addressed, these processes have the potential to transform BRICS => CS. CS is not near as impresive as BRICS, in particular the economical potential.
Curious to hear what other forum members think about this, in particular, the (apparent/factual?) lack of clear response by Russia / China to these threats ?
Video which shows the clear manipulation on portuguese MSM / globo : https://www.facebook.com/ostruques/posts/514818575382102
Brazil seems a very corrupt place. The hegemon thrives on corruption, people willing to sell their country for a few pieces of silver. The corrupt Brazilian senate voted to impeach the only honest politician.
What is there for Russia to help? There is no solid political or military block that is free of corruption and ready and willing to fight to the end in Brazil.
Brazil is gone, and the Rightwing thugs returning to power after losing four elections in a row, will dance to Thanatopolis DC’s tune. After all their money is safely invested there. There will be brutal repression, like the good old days, more death-squad action in the favelas and higher education, and possibly a military coup if required. Latin America will never be free until Thanatopolis DC falls.
Dilma, an honest politician? Are you serious?
In Brazil they are what they are. They are each as bad as the other. Honest is not what they are. Nevertheless Brazil has what it tolerates and hence, what it deserves.
Siotu
Honest as in corruption and bribery. If there was anything, NSA would have it and that would have been used to remove her.
The Brazilian Senate voted 61-20 to convict the country’s first female president, Dilma Rousseff, of illegally using money from state banks to bankroll public spending.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-impeachment-diplomacy-idUSKCN116341
That’s what they got her on. Is that Corruption? Most of the politicians that voted for her impeachment seem to have been named in corruption investigations in Brazil, but Rousseff there was nothing they could get her on.
Some argue that the BRICS were mostly an invention of Langley and the USSD in the first place. The nations represented in the acronym were never so naive.
The obvious rhyme with the word meaning ‘slang for male sexual organ’ suggests that someone at Langley was keenly looking forward to the weekend. But to the successfully CIANN-engineered consumer it can be made to look like a victory for the West rather than a daydream of a dirty weekend.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-08-30/americans-give-us-nothing-france-effectively-kills-ttip-calls-end-negotiations
TTIP, nothing more than a left-handed attempt at a fascist NWO is getting stiff resistance from France. The court jester, Josh Earnest calls it “thorny negotiations” which have all but stalled after THREE YEARS of trying to push this dead horse across the finish line. So, if TTIP is DOA, what follows next- going to war or more false flag attacks in Paris and Berlin? TTIP is being recognized as the strangulation of both worker prosperity and national sovereignty in favor of increased power to the global network of corporate control, but at the same time, eyes look east and see the forward-looking win-win proposal and ideas taking shape with the new Silk Road (Russia-China) and this must be stopped at all costs. The timing of this is critical; going into a general election in the US, an inked TTIP would appear to be a major achievement for the Obama legacy and the democrats. The problem is, TTIP is under fire here as well. Without a TTIP, the entire 8 years of Obama oppression will be a total failure. And the words of Lyndon LaRouche, who has strongly urged an impeachment since the very beginning are going to come back to haunt those on the hill who automatically dismiss him.
TTIP will not be happening in Europe any time soon; my understanding is that Germany and France both regard it as dead in the water, something more or less confirmed today by Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s vice chancellor. Only Italy’s trade minister appears to regard it as “essential”. In the UK there has been little discussion of TTIP, in keeping with the secrecy that has so far surrounded the talks, but any attempt to introduce it here may well see civil unrest, particularly in the present post-Brexit climate, where the electorate is starting to feel it’s oats. The big problem is that the people who led Brexit, our right wing elites/fruitcakes, are the ones most likely to sign up to TTIP; most EU voters have already made their views known on the subject, so the US should go back home and forget it. It really doesn’t matter what Obama wants, it’s not going to happen. Oh I’m forgetting: unless of course the US offers to publish Mutti Merkel’s old Stasi file.
It is good to see that even Mr. Pepe Escobar is realizing we “could” be (are heading in my opinion) heading towards a one way ticket to post-MAD territory.
‘BRICS is in a coma’. Brazil has already been eliminated. More ominous and dangerous is the fall of India into Oceania’s embrace, a move which I (among others) predicted would happen from the moment when the new Indian PM was received in Bollywood style in America, where Americans deftly ‘massaged the Indian Himalayan ego’.
“US, India sign military logistics agreement”, by Yeganeh Torbati and Idrees Ali@http://atimes.com/2016/08/us-india-sign-military-logistics-agreement/
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States and India signed an agreement on Monday governing the use of each other’s land, air and naval bases for repair and resupply, a step toward building defense ties as they seek to counter the growing maritime assertiveness of China…
The U.S. military has made clear it wants to do more with India, especially in countering China, which U.S. officials say is risking stoking conflict through its claims in the South China Sea, a vital trade waterway.
Without naming China, both Carter and Parrikar mentioned the importance of the free flow of trade to both countries.
“India and the United States have a shared interest in freedom of navigation and overflight and unimpeded commerce as part of rule-based order in (the) Indo-Pacific,” Parrikar said….
More details at “India and US become logistical allies”, by M.K. Bhadrakumar @http://atimes.com/2016/08/india-us-to-become-logistical-allies/
“This week marks a historic milestone in independent India’s diplomatic history. The Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) was signed in Washington on August 29.
The LEMOA provides for the armed forces of the two countries to use the other globally for supplies, spare parts, services and refueling. Effectively, the US armed forces could operate out of Indian bases on a simple basis..
Notionally, LEMOA allows India also to operate out of American bases ‘globally’…
what is the raison d’etre of LEMOA? Why is it that Washington pulled all stops to get the Narendra Modi government India to the signing ceremony? First and foremost, LEMOA is a ‘foundational agreement’.
It means US is putting one toe inside the Indian tent. Once inside the tent, life can always be made more comfortable. This is one thing.
Second, LEMOA is a key way-station on agreements still to come – Communications and Information Security Memorandum Agreement (CISMOA) and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Intelligence (BECA).
Simply put, US and India are navigating their journey through the LEMOA to the ultimate destination – CISMOA and BECA.”
India becomes the real spoiler of the Maritime Silk Road and a counter-balance for China. The sabotage of India-China economic projects and the increasing provocations of India on the ‘contested’ border with China, the continuous ‘strong support for the Tibetan cause’, the increasing anti Chinese sentiment in India, are warning signs that India would become a spoiler in the SCO as well. We may expect a new flare-up of the ‘Tibetan problem’.
India was never on-board with any of the maritime or land silk road projects. The original plans all bypass India in some fashion, the touchpoints being Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma and Bangladesh. China has surrounded India with its ‘string of pearls’ strategy creating dangerous flashpoints for India. It has interfered in Kashmir with the Gwadar port passage which is creating further problems in Balochistan. Chinese submarines are docking in Colombo, SL port, and have been spotted all over in the Indian Ocean insisting on their right of passage, but India cannot use the South China sea for trade as a right of way? The Chinese insist on treating India with great condescension as the recently concluded NSG summit showed where China blocked India’s bid. And China continues to block India on various issues pertaining to terrorism and security at the UN. China insists on treating India and Pakistan the same on all matters (see entry to SCO for example), so why shouldn’t India look out for itself? The silk road was never meant to benefit India; it was always China’s master plan to tie up land routes to the Eurasian markets for itself and I do not see that India was ever treated as a real partner. BRICS was a DOA concept. I do believe India and Russia share a relationship of strategic depth that will survive the pivot to Asia, Silk Roads, and the BRICS nonsense.
The Indian ‘Himalayan ego’ climbing higher that Himalaya? Russia is closer to China than to India, geographically. India was invited to participate in the OBOR but so far it looks that it turned down the offer.
Classic psyop Internet forum maneuvers. What ego? I am making observations based on my study of geopolitical events. Perhaps as you say, Russia and China are closer, so I may be wrong about the relationship between Russia and India in the long run. Time will tell. However, I am surprised at the virulence with which you attack opposing opinions that OBOR may not be beneficial for India. Wasn’t the whole point supposed to be a multipolar world where nations can decide what works best for them?
Your ad hominems reveal who you are shilling for. Also I noticed you quoted my above response on another article on this site without attributing who you were referencing. Typical trolling.
It’s pretty obvious who is the shill in this conversation, and it’s not WizOz.
India is increasingly dropping its mask of multipolarism and instead is coming out of the closet as an American unipolar stooge…sorry… ally.
Yes, India Is Now Officially A US Ally
http://gpolit.com/2016/09/04/yes-india-now-officially-us-ally-andrew-korybko/
Andrew Korybko has been warning about this omnious development for some time and suggested that India should be treated as a trojan horse:
“Right now, the prospects look regrettably dim that sincere multipolar influences will make a comeback in the Indian establishment anytime soon, so it’s in the grand strategic interests of Russia and China to thenceforth regard everything that India does with the utmost of suspicion and begin painfully asking themselves whether the US has in fact succeeded in turning the South Asian giant into a Trojan Horse for sabotaging BRICS, the SCO, and the emerging multipolar world order in general.”
from: India’s Politicization Of Terrorism: Masood Azhar And Dolkan Isa http://gpolit.com/2016/04/29/indias-politicization-terrorism-masood-azhar-dolkan-isa-andrew-korybko/
This development of India allying with the Anglo Zionist Empire is not all that surprising given that Indian ruler, Narenda Modi, has been hailed as Israel’s best friend in Asia since his selection to power in 2014.
India 2014 Elections: Narendra Modi, Israel’s Best Friend In South Asia
http://www.ibtimes.com/india-2014-elections-narendra-modi-israels-best-friend-south-asia-1561837
India becoming Israel’s ‘Best Friend’ in Asia
https://unitedwithisrael.org/india-becoming-israels-best-friend-in-asia/
India was invited by China to join OBOR; India has declined.
India’s NSG application was blocked by China and seven other countries; it wasn’t even blocked, rather the precondition was that Pakistan also be made a member of NSG.
Thirdly, Gilgit Baptists was only notionally a part of Kashmir under British Raj. Read the agreement signed between the Raja of Kashmir and the Brits. Pakistan has always constructed roads with Chinese help in the region. The first one The Karakorum highway was built in the early seventies. India only complained about Chinese projects in the region when CPEC was announced as part of OBOR. this clearly proves India’s real aim is obstructing OBOR and the Pak China strategic benefits derived from this.
Finally I would like to when chins has disallowed Indian ships from using the SC sea.
Containing China and Russia? The US python’s coils cannot even ‘contain’ Russia (then the USSR) without the help of China. Much less containing both Russia and China together. The python may find RC too big to swallow and with devastating consequences on itself if it attempt to do so.
I hope HRC does provoke, she and the other washington fraudsters need a medium sized kicking and to be sent home as failures. That shiny new billion dollar coffin .. oops .. I mean aircraft carrier could go to the bottom as a sign of just how useless the MIC has been in making weapons (but always excellent at creating profits for itself) Then hilary would be out on her ass and the US could do what it should be doing, sorting out the various piles of s*** on its own doorstep. The yanks are all talk these days, crappy proxy wars and color revolutions they simply daren’t enter the theatre of war on a level playing field. They are relying on Russian decency and reticence not to call their bluff. The world needs to get rid of these shysters once and for all, it would be a far far better place for it.
I’m happy to find Pepe working with Ezra Pound.
Ezra had the Khazarian Mafia smoked out ages ago.
I urge you to reconsider. Hilaryis gravely ill and so it’s now or never. Not that tbey u detstabdmuch– they never did– but necons see her as you do but neitber she nor Bill are up to another war. Don’t everr underestimate the drive forHistory. Hilary waited too long and now knows that her place in History gets o ly four years in which to be established and anothe Mideast War would kill that for her. A sad story because, had she been a free agent and President eight years ago, she might have had the time and energy to be Hilary– her own master– and a lot more dynamic than whom she follows next year. While she wouldn’t have gone to war, she would have decanged Jihad by resolving the Israeli-Palestonian Crisis as she was rrying to get Bill ro do. But it’s too late as sheishalf dead by now. It’s sad that Times out-hustled tbe Cli ton hustlers as, alas, Hilary is too old to be the real President Hilary she would have once been.