by Pepe Escobar, first published at The Cradle and posted with the author’s permission
Xi Jinping has made an offer difficult for the Arabian Peninsula to ignore: China will be guaranteed buyers of your oil and gas, but we will pay in yuan.
It would be so tempting to qualify Chinese President Xi Jinping landing in Riyadh a week ago, welcomed with royal pomp and circumstance, as Xi of Arabia proclaiming the dawn of the petroyuan era.
But it’s more complicated than that. As much as the seismic shift implied by the petroyuan move applies, Chinese diplomacy is way too sophisticated to engage in direct confrontation, especially with a wounded, ferocious Empire. So there’s way more going here than meets the (Eurasian) eye.
Xi of Arabia’s announcement was a prodigy of finesse: it was packaged as the internationalization of the yuan. From now on, Xi said, China will use the yuan for oil trade, through the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange, and invited the Persian Gulf monarchies to get on board. Nearly 80 percent of trade in the global oil market continues to be priced in US dollars.
Ostensibly, Xi of Arabia, and his large Chinese delegation of officials and business leaders, met with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to promote increased trade. Beijing promised to “import crude oil in a consistent manner and in large quantities from the GCC.” And the same goes for natural gas.
China has been the largest importer of crude on the planet for five years now – half of it from the Arabian peninsula, and more than a quarter from Saudi Arabia. So it’s no wonder that the prelude for Xi of Arabia’s lavish welcome in Riyadh was a special op-ed expanding the trading scope, and praising increased strategic/commercial partnerships across the GCC, complete with “5G communications, new energy, space and digital economy.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi doubled down on the “strategic choice” of China and wider Arabia. Over $30 billion in trade deals were duly signed – quite a few significantly connected to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects.
And that brings us to the two key connections established by Xi of Arabia: the BRI and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
The Silk Roads of Arabia
BRI will get a serious boost by Beijing in 2023, with the return of the Belt and Road Forum. The first two bi-annual forums took place in 2017 and 2019. Nothing happened in 2021 because of China’s strict zero-Covid policy, now abandoned for all practical purposes.
The year 2023 is pregnant with meaning as BRI was first launched 10 years ago by Xi, first in Central Asia (Astana) and then Southeast Asia (Jakarta).
BRI not only embodies a complex, multi-track trans-Eurasian trade/connectivity drive but it is the overarching Chinese foreign policy concept at least until the mid-21st century. So the 2023 forum is expected to bring to the forefront a series of new and redesigned projects adapted to a post-Covid and debt-distressed world, and most of all to the loaded Atlanticism vs. Eurasianism geopolitical and geoeconomic sphere.
Also significantly, Xi of Arabia in December followed Xi of Samarkand in September – his first post-Covid overseas trip, for the SCO summit in which Iran officially joined as a full member. China and Iran in 2021 clinched a 25-year strategic partnership deal worth a potential $400 billion in investments. That’s the other node of China’s two-pronged West Asia strategy.
The nine permanent SCO members now represent 40 percent of the world’s population. One of their key decisions in Samarkand was to increase bilateral trade, and overall trade, in their own currencies.
And that further connects us to what has happening in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in full synchronicity with Riyadh: the meeting of the Supreme Eurasia Economic Council, the policy implementation arm of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Kyrgyzstan, could not have been more straightforward: “The work has accelerated in the transition to national currencies in mutual settlements… The process of creating a common payment infrastructure and integrating national systems for the transmission of financial information has begun.”
The next Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will take place in Russia in May 2023, ahead of the Belt and Road Forum. Take them together and we have the lineaments of the geoeconomic road map ahead: the drive towards the petroyuan proceeding in parallel to the drive towards a “common paying infrastructure” and most of all, a new alternative currency bypassing the US dollar.
That’s exactly what the head of the EAEU’s macroeconomic policy, Sergey Glazyev, has been designing, side by side with Chinese specialists.
Total Financial War
The move towards the petroyuan will be fraught with immense peril.
In every serious geoeconomic gaming scenario, it’s a given that an enfeebled petrodollar translates as the end of the imperial free lunch in effect for over five decades.
Concisely, in 1971, then-US President Richard “Tricky Dick” Nixon pulled the US from the gold standard; three years later, after the 1973 oil shock, Washington approached the Saudi oil minister, notorious Sheikh Yamani, with the proverbial offer-you-can’t-refuse: we buy your oil in US dollars and in return you buy our Treasury bonds, lots of weapons, and recycle whatever’s left in our banks.
Cue to Washington now suddenly able to dispense helicopter money – backed by nothing – ad infinitum, and the US dollar as the ultimate hegemonic weapon, complete with an array of sanctions over 30 nations who dare to disobey the unilaterally imposed “rules-based international order.”
Impulsively rocking this imperial boat is anathema. So Beijing and the GCC will adopt the petroyuan slowly but surely, and certainly with zero fanfare. The heart of the matter, once again, is their mutual exposure to the Western financial casino.
In the Chinese case, what to do, for instance, with those whopping $1 trillion in US Treasury bonds. In the Saudi case, it’s hard to think about “strategic autonomy” – such as what’s enjoyed by Iran – when the petrodollar is a staple of the Western financial system. The menu of possible imperial reactions includes everything from a soft coup/ regime change to Shock and Awe over Riyadh – followed by regime change.
Yet what the Chinese – and the Russians – are aiming at goes way beyond a Saudi (and Emirati) predicament. Beijing and Moscow have clearly identified how everything – the oil market, global commodities markets – is tied to the role of the US dollar as reserve currency.
And that’s exactly what the EAEU discussions; the SCO discussions; from now on the BRICS+ discussions; and Beijing’s two-pronged strategy across West Asia are focused to undermine.
Beijing and Moscow, within the BRICS framework, and further on within the SCO and the EAEU, have been closely coordinating their strategy since the first sanctions on Russia post-Maidan 2014, and the de facto trade war against China unleashed in 2018.
Now, after the February 2022 Special Military Operation launched by Moscow in Ukraine and NATO has devolved into, for all practical purposes, war against Russia, we have stepped beyond Hybrid War territory and are deep into Total Financial War.
SWIFTly drifting away
The whole Global South absorbed the “lesson” of the collective (institutional) west freezing, as in stealing, the foreign reserves of a G20 member, on top of it a nuclear superpower. If that happened to Russia, it could happen to anyone. There are no “rules” anymore.
Russia since 2014 has been improving its SPFS payment system, in parallel with China’s CIPS, both bypassing the western-led SWIFT banking messaging system, and increasingly used by Central Banks across Central Asia, Iran and India. All across Eurasia, more people are ditching Visa and Mastercard and using UnionPay and/or Mir cards, not to mention Alipay and WeChat Pay, both extremely popular across Southeast Asia.
Of course the petrodollar – and the US dollar, still representing under 60 percent of global foreign exchange reserves – will not ride into oblivion overnight. Xi of Arabia is just the latest chapter in a seismic shift now driven by a select group in the Global South, and not by the former “hyperpower.”
Trading in their own currencies and a new, global alternative currency is right at the top of the priorities of that long list of nations – from South America to Northern Africa and West Asia – eager to join BRICS+ or the SCO, and in quite a few cases, both.
The stakes could not be higher. And it’s all about subjugation or exercising full sovereignty. So let’s leave the last essential words to the foremost diplomat of our troubled times, Russia’s Sergey Lavrov, at the international interparty conference Eurasian Choice as a Basis for Strengthening Sovereignty:
“The main reason for today’s growing tensions is the stubborn striving of the collective West to maintain a historically diminishing domination in the international arena by any means it can… It is impossible to impede the strengthening of the independent centers of economic growth, financial might and political influence. They are emerging on our common continent of Eurasia, in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa.”
All aboard…the Sovereign Train.
The U.S. Inc has entered WW 1 ,WW 2 and now WW 3 all these wars where and now false Flag War’s
WW 1 sinking of Ship Lusitania , start of federal Reserve ,the Balford declaration between Rothchild for the state of Palestine ( now Israeli ) in exchange for U.S. Inc enterers the War also U.S. Had major finical problems
J P Morgan bailed out The U.S. Inc with a loan of a 100 million dollars in Gold —– WW 2 Pearl Harbour complete embargo of Japan just like Cuba today also depression 1929 to 1939 , U.S. Inc was bankrupt ie gold confiscation U.S. inc needed another War ” Pearl Harbour” WW 2 was about removing the England Empire
to the new Empire U.S.A. inc 75 % of all Gold supply went to the U.S. inc and got us out of the Depression ,
also the other intend of the War War 2 was to have both Germany and Russia destroy each other but that
Plan Failed ,
Now WW 3 U.S. Inc is Bankrupted, the Ponze US Dollar( since 1971 off the Gold standard ) 51 years now, is finished as is the Empire ,Ukraine is the new False Flag !!
What did all these three War’s have in common Financial bankrupt of the U.S.A inc but this time it is not
only money but also every thing that a good healthy society requires morale ,Institutional Law education,
Etc,Etc Etc the decay of the Empire lets all of hope that we DO NOT have a Nuclear WAR.
TOM 123
,
Pepe excellent write up. I was wondering about currency -trade goals nit being mentioned in the joint statement. It makes sense. If you are going to increase your trade in other currencies which don’t go through swift network it makes no sense to announce it and rile up the hegemon on something it won’t know otherwise.
Also missing in your mentions is Indias UPI payment infrastructure for digital debit and credit payments and the RuPay bank ( debit and credit) card system. In a matter of couple of years UPI brought digital payments system to mobiles linking bank accounts to mobile payments suddenly bringing hundreds of millions very poor people into non cash payments systems. Best part is it’s free both to the user as well as vendors. The govt pays for the very small bank costs which cost barely couple of billion a year.
In one stroke indian govt tremendously expanded the debit payments from bank accounts by non cash means and took 60% share ( probably now reaching 80%) of debit transaction from Master and Visa.
It’s set to do the same with credit transactions through its RuPay bank Credit card system with its back bone being UPI ( Universal Payments interface) it has already taken 20% market share. With big ticket payments being the the target which Visa and Master giving cashbacks. A little tweak in laws preventing offering of cashbacks will level the playing field.
The trick to the success though is the % of interest payment, if its just another 20% run on the citizens back, you’ll find yourself out of labor horsepower in short order, just as the west is experiencing now, and perhaps China too if there is a weak link inherited in their system.
Eventually one runs into an unsustainable burnout rate, but you just hope its not your institution or tribe that cant put the ball and the bat together and strikes out.
Personal credit culture in many cultures is very low except for home loans. In fact savings culture is very high and it’s difficult to get people to borrow. When business and industrial credit is tapped out govts find it difficult to get people to take loans or even spend. Indians have a notorious habit of hoarding gold in form of 22 carat gold jewellery.
Well sincerely hope this Eurasian idea turns into reality. However, just got very surprised by Xi’s recent move indeed a very a classical example of a Machiavellian move while on a visit to SA. Here in Iran we learned that Xi signed a document supporting Persian Gulf Cooperation Council’s nonsense about the three Iranian Islands in the PG. Iranian ownership of the three island dates back to even before China’s own Qi dynasty around 220 BC. The Anglo-Zionist petrodollar-run little sheikhdom of UAE which wrongly claim possession of the strategic islands was itself founded in 1971 that’s a little over 50 years ago. The Chinese diplomatic cadre should know better before just signing these things. It’s like Xi makes a visit to Japan and sign a joint document supporting Tokyo’s position on the Kuril Islands. Very strange and unnecessary move at this time. Can any commenter explain this strange action by Beijing?
Refreshing take, as always from Pepe. Muito obrigado!
KSA could continue using USD while the percentage of USD denominated reserves and trades declines in other parts of the globe. That way the House of Saud could avoid regime change operations. They were installed by the British after all, and have little, if any, legitimate claims to being the sole rulers of the territory.
A musical interpretation of Pepe’s article linked here … L’il Ed with the Blues Imperials sings “Hold That Train”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5_5nYzEOX0
Mind you, L’il Ed wears the Fez – maybe he’s been to Mecca as Ed of Arabia – and, in any case, in the end it’s “All Aboard!”
It’s the imperialist blues and they’re getting left behind. Their choice.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 . . . . . bu-bye
@ maskazer2022 on December 20, 2022 · at 2:15 pm EST/EDT
“…Here in Iran we learned that Xi signed a document supporting Persian Gulf Cooperation Council’s nonsense about the three Iranian Islands in the PG…”
Absolutely insignificant.
From Pepe.
“…China and Iran in 2021 clinched a 25-year strategic partnership deal worth a potential $400 billion in investments. That’s the other node of China’s two-pronged West Asia strategy…”
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As one of China’s vital nodes in West Asia, strategically placed in the maze of interlocking Eurasian integration, Iran remains a top priority in China’s foreign policy. Signing that declaration costs China nothing they cannot fix with the Iranians through back door diplomacy. It is common that heads of state visiting foreign countries will be asked to support this or that cause for the hosting country.
The signed declaration states,
“The leaders affirmed their support for all peaceful efforts, including the initiative and endeavours of the United Arab Emirates to reach a peaceful solution to the issue of the three islands; Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb, and Abu Musa, through bilateral negotiations in accordance with the rules of international law, and to resolve this issue in accordance with international legitimacy,” the joint statement said.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/479617/Persian-Gulf-islands-belong-to-Iran-MP
Blah, blah, blah…in no way it compromises the neutrality of China on the GCC claim, it calls for “peaceful resolution” blah, blah, blah…
A brief explanation to Iran sotto voce, case closed.
Lone Wolf
Yes I agree this is largely histrionics and empty posturing extended to anxious desert Bedouins who see the writing on the wall after three centuries of criminal vassalage to the Anglos. Likely a quiet quid pro quo between two old civilizations to facilitate the fantastic milking opportunities of panicking milch-camels. Beijing lost a huge export market in the West. The hapless bedouins see 1,000 sharpened knives approaching and rush to stay relevant and alive through deals with hopefully receptive new Patrons… who will now insist on their avoidance of joining Zionist suicide charges against Iran and other shenanigans. All things considered it is an economic coup for China, more tightly corrals the desert Bedouins to Zone B and presents a major headache and distraction for the equally hapless Hegemon. What’s not to love? Thus is Hubris cut down to size and multipolarity advanced with endless moves like this
Thanks for your explanation,
Yes of course we know Iran is an important node, strategically located, energy rich etc. but so far almost all of that nice 400 billion cooperation is written only on the paper and nothing else, as the Chinese keep citing the US sanctions against Iran for any delays. Being a world power, people around the world expect from the Chinese to show more resolves countering the existing neocon petrodollar world order at least by speeding up economic projects, fixing the new Eurasian financial system, a common currency, Swift replacement network …etc. However, not so much things happen on those fronts again citing the western sanctions on Iran and now perhaps Russia too. What can explain this passive strategy by the Chinese is that she still continue to rip huge benefits by siding with the global petrodollar network especially when it comes to oil rich – strategically situated ME, pursuing the old Machiavellian tactics. Using the divide and conquer strategy in ME, the existing petrodollar system, by the west and the Chinese, until all the of oil in the Arab countries is depleted like say 60-70 years from now, then switch sides and move toward Iran which by that time is willing to accept any terms they put forward to it. Well that’s the grand idea but just in case somewhere along the line if suddenly something unexpected happen the Chinese would have enough cushions to work around that, like the petroyuan proposition. The PGCC statement by itself says nothing specific but when a Chinese official signs a document like that it means they acknowledge there really is a dispute. It would have been absolutely better they did not enter the supposed dispute between the two parties in the first place if wanted a more balanced approach.
A few folks have correctly commented on the shortcomings of Escobar’s analysis. I will not get into it except to say that geopolitical analyses without class contents often finds itself in dead ends, as he often has with regard to the Velvet type green “revolution” in Iran, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, etc.
Anyway, in assessing the joint statement between China and the reactionary Arab regimes of the Persian Gulf, one must pay careful attention to its other components rather than focusing on the issue of the Islands and Iran’s territorial integrity (which China conveniently has chosen to address in diplomatic language). The reason is those other components implicitly and at times explicitly oppose Iran’s regional actions (Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon…) and support Saudi and UAE’s positions, particularly with regard to Yemen. The joint statement in effect clearly presses Iran to comply with US and EU’s demands RE its nuclear program and it and goes even further to question Iran’s missile and drone development programs. These are known as JACOPA 2, and 3 and have been demanded by the US and EU for a long time. So, in many ways China has essentially parroted the EU and US lines regarding Iran’s regional role and ambitions and defense initiatives. That should not come as a surprise since 1) Xi had met Biden and Schultz prior to going to the region and one would expect there was some dialogue and sharing of sentiments about these issues in those earlier meetings, and 2) China is not really opposed to the policy of containing Iran and nudging it along to play ball and be content with the role its “partners” assign to it in the market-oriented division of labor where China is increasingly playing a major role.
China needs raw materials, markets for its goods and services, and capital, but it refrains from taking big risks in Iran until the US and EU sanctions are lifted which again it feels requires compliance with their demands (echoed in the statement). In the meantime, China is investing in Saudi missile, drone, and nuclear programs and etc as well as investing heavily in Israel. There is not much room to be overly optimistic about the turn of events, and the illusion of wedging away Saudi to the “other side”. And so far it has not really worked in the case of Erdoghan either.
No mention of How Xi back stabbed Iran in that summit. I wonder if anyone payed attention summit. China violated Iran’s territorial sovereignty by undermining Iran’s control over the triad of islands in the Persian gulf. Xi managed to violated” Iran-China strategic partnership ” and SCO in one swift move
Xi like anyother over lord wants poodles to play with. SA has money and can be sold. Iran has oil, technology and competence. ie. free radical. Not good for China… they may reverse engineer chinese tech
all these play into Xi’s comments
@ maskazer2022 on December 21, 2022 · at 2:02 am EST/EDT
“Yes of course we know Iran is an important node, strategically located, energy rich etc. but so far almost all of that nice 400 billion cooperation is written only on the paper and nothing else, as the Chinese keep citing the US sanctions against Iran for any delays…”
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Several issues with your comment.
You’re missing Pepe’s gems of information he drops at every line, by projecting your reading onto the subject.
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From Pepe.
“Total Financial War…fraught with immense peril…Impulsively rocking this imperial boat is anathema. So Beijing and the GCC will adopt the petroyuan slowly but surely, and certainly with zero fanfare. The heart of the matter, once again, is their mutual exposure to the Western financial casino…we have stepped beyond Hybrid War territory and are deep into Total Financial War.”
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Same “immense peril” applies to Iran, and rocking the sanctions boat is still, not for too long, anathema for China relations, not only with Iran, also with Russia, North Korea, and any other country affected by sanctions. China is another target for the empire, as it is Iran and Russia, and the Chinese are projecting and expanding their power through a minefield of obstacles, sanctions among them, to themselves and their allies in the Eurasian Integration.
On a deeper level, Eastern cultures do not measure time on a western clock, they practice the philosophy of time.
China and Iran, as master wordsmith AHH pointed out above, are “two old civilizations” (/xi-of-arabia-and-the-petroyuan-drive/#comment-1164910) now having to deal with a spoiled rotten brat in need of a lesson of good manners.
Time for old civilizations is a different concept.
Iran has secured its position as full member of the Quad, which will be leading the Eurasian Integration, along with Russia, China, and India. Iran is overlapping its membership in multiple institutions/organizations crisscrossing the Eurasian landmass, a key factor in the development of the North-South corridor, opening up the Indian Ocean and beyond, interconnecting Russia, China, and potentially Europe, whenever they stop their temper tantrum, trough the Southern Caucasus to India, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
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https://www.ritmeurasia.org/news–2022-12-17–koridor-sever-jug-i-zst-eaes-i-irana-hrebet-obscheevrazijskogo-partnerstva-63639?utm_source=finobzor.ru
The North-South Corridor and the EAEU-Iran FTA are the backbone of the Pan-Eurasian partnership
“…It should be noted in this regard that the trans-Iranian transit corridor as the central sector of the international North-South corridor has not been used for the first century. Because it is the shortest route between most European countries, on the one hand, and South and Southeast Asia, on the other. Accordingly, the main advantages of this route in comparison with other transit arteries are its competitiveness in terms of transportation time and cost savings. Recent evidence to this effect includes : inclusion in this corridor of the vast north-eastern waters of the Indian Ocean, that is, cargo transportation to Bangladesh (and in the opposite direction).
Moreover, a number of experts do not rule out further extension of the North-South corridor to Southeast Asia and further to Australia/Oceania. This is all the more possible if the long-standing project of a shipping channel through the South Thailand Isthmus of Kra (this is the shortest route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans) is implemented with Russian participation. Such prospects for the same corridor are considered possible in connection with the planned free trade zone between Thailand and the EAEU. In short, the geography itself is already predestined for the comprehensive development of the Euro-Asian transit corridor with the participation, first of all, of Russia and Iran…
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Most of these projects have seen the light of the day in the last twenty years, the speed of transformation invisible to us by means of information suppression the western MSM imposes on the planet. The Eurasian Revolution towards a multipolar world is similar to the motion of tectonic plates, whose millimetrical displacement goes unnoticed for years, decades, even centuries, until a breaking point brings a giant earthquake, tsunami included.
Iran is a key interconnecting node in all these projects.
And more.
From the same article quoted above.
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“…However, the North-South corridor also has an electric power dimension. In more detail, since the second half of the 2010s, Russia, the Transcaucasian countries and Iran have been implementing the project of an electric power “bridge” aimed at maximizing the demand for electricity in these countries through bilateral or collective electricity supplies within the specified electric corridor.
At least half of the equipment for this project is provided by the Russian side; within the framework of the project, it is also produced through technological cooperation of the same countries. We also note that this electric corridor is planned to be extended in the future to Iraq and from there to Syria. In addition, the unified technological regime now covers up to a third of the total capacity of the electrical systems of Iran and Iraq.
This project is being implemented in stages, and very significant results in this process have been identified so far. Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian told the media at the end of November this year that” preliminary synchronization of the modes of operation of the electric networks of Russia and Iran has already been completed ” (meaning a single technological mode of operation of electric systems. The minister specified that ” technical measures will be implemented in the near future for the general synchronization of the electric networks of Iran, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.” In addition, according to Mr. Mehrabian, ” the issue of electricity barter (exchange of electricity supplies) is being discussed in detail. – Ed.) with neighboring countries.”
The main route of the electric corridor of the Russian Federation-Transcaucasia-Iran is designed (passes) through Armenia
In this regard, it should be noted that so far this is the only major project that Armenia and Azerbaijan are involved in, although today their relations, as they say, leave much to be desired. At the same time, the project is beneficial for these countries, because the continued growth of demand for electricity in Iran will allow not only Russia, but also Armenia and Azerbaijan to increase electricity supplies to the Iranian energy system (and in the future – to Iraq and Syria).
Thus, the Russia–Transcaucasia–Iran electric power corridor, along with its obvious sectoral and multilateral benefits, also has a foreign policy significance. As it helps to reduce the degree of tension between Baku and Yerevan.
In short, Iran’s increasingly active cooperation with Russia and the EAEU in general is shaping a comprehensive system of multilateral economic and, consequently, political partnership in Eurasia.
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The Russia – Transcaucasia – Iran electric power corridor will project Iran into a powerhouse, literally, economically and geopolitically. A couple of days ago, Azerbaijan told Israel they cannot use Azerbaijan as a launchpad for an attack on Iran. Peace is a key factor in the new multipolar world, and though China/Russia/India have conflicts on their own, potentially and otherwise, they play a substantial role putting out fires that could affect their strategic plans. The key is in their offering a common platform for join economic development, substantial enough to keep the “regime change/color revolutions/coup d’etat” henchmen out of the gamefield, and war is bad for business, not an option.
For Iran potential, the sky is the limit.
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“…The PGCC statement by itself says nothing specific but when a Chinese official signs a document like that it means they acknowledge there really is a dispute. It would have been absolutely better they did not enter the supposed dispute between the two parties in the first place if wanted a more balanced approach.”
I don’t believe China will risk such a strategic relationship with Iran for some “panicking milch-camels,” as AHH pointed out above. I have said enough on this kerfuffle, I would suggest you read AHH’s post again. He has concisely packed the subject into the proper imagery.
/xi-of-arabia-and-the-petroyuan-drive/#comment-1164910
“…Likely a quiet quid pro quo between two old civilizations to facilitate the fantastic milking opportunities of panicking milch-camels…”
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Lone Wolf
Always top shelf Pepe, thanks.
Been working to synthesize simply the Empire approach. They whined, pissed and moaned about the impending Nordstream 2 and then when it finally could not cancel the need for the energy they blew pipes apart with violence. F the EU indeed, you doubted her words, try on our action.
It’s really amusing the US market their Hodge podge gas as a viable business alternative at 4 times the price. Never mind all the, not so hidden costs, of doing business with an inefficient, top heavy, mafia, intent on everyone’s treasure and certain of its qualification as the world’s slave master.
So this is the US train, barreling down a mountain, oblivious to the bridge out ahead.