{"id":1472793,"date":"2024-06-22T23:50:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T03:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1472793"},"modified":"2024-06-22T23:50:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T03:50:00","slug":"we-need-icebreakers-and-more-strategic-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/we-need-icebreakers-and-more-strategic-partnerships\/1472793\/","title":{"rendered":"“We Need Icebreakers”… And More Strategic Partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"

“We Need Icebreakers”… And More Strategic Partnerships<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Pepe Escobar,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The St. Petersburg forum offered a wealth of crucial sessions discussing connectivity corridors. One of the key ones was on the\u00a0Northern Sea Route (NSR)<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 or, in Chinese terminology, the Arctic Silk Road: the number one future alternative to the Suez canal.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

With an array of main corporate actors in the room \u2013 for instance, from Rosneft, Novatek, Norilsk Nickel \u2013 as well as governors and ministers, the stage was set for a comprehensive debate.<\/p>\n

Top Putin adviser Igor Levitin set the tone: to facilitate seamless container transport, the federal government needs to invest in seaports and icebreakers; <\/strong>a comparison was made \u2013 in terms of technological challenge \u2013 to the building of the Trans-Siberian railway; and Levitin also stressed the endless expansion possibilities for city hubs such as Murmansk, Archangelsk and Vladivostok.<\/p>\n

Add to it that the NSR will connect with another fast-growing trans-Eurasia connectivity corridor: the INSTC (International North South Transportation Corridor), whose main actors are BRICS members Russia, Iran and India.<\/p>\n

Alexey Chekunkov, minister for development of the Far East and the Arctic, plugged a trial run of the NSR, which costs the same as railway shipping without the bottlenecks. He praised the NSR as a \u201cservice\u201d and coined the ultimate motto: \u201cWe need icebreakers!\u201d Russia of course will be the leading player in the whole project, benefitting 2.5 million people who live in the North.<\/p>\n

Sultan Sulayem, CEO of Dubai-based cargo logistics and maritime services powerhouse DP World, confirmed that \u201cthe current supply chains are not reliable anymore\u201d, as well as being inefficient; the NSR is \u201cfaster, more reliable and cheaper\u201d. From Tokyo to London, the route runs for 24k km; via the NSR, it\u2019s only 13k km.<\/p>\n

Sulayem is adamant: the NSR is a game-changer and \u201cneeds to be implemented now\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vladimir Panov, the special representative for the Arctic from Rosatom, confirmed that the Arctic is \u201ca treasure chest\u201d, and the NSR \u201cwill unlock it\u201d. Rosatom will have all the necessary infrastructure in place \u201cin five years or so\u201d. He credited the fast pace of developments to the high-level Putin-Xi strategic dialogue \u2013 complete with the creation of a Russia-China working group.<\/p>\n

Andrey Chibis, the governor of Murmansk, noted that this deep, key port for the NSR \u2013 the main container hub in the Arctic \u2013 \u201cdoes not freeze\u201d. He acknowledged the enormity of the logistical challenges \u2013 but at the same time that will attract a lot of skilled workers, considering the high quality of life in Murmansk.<\/p>\n

A maze of interconnected corridors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The building of the NSR indeed can be interpreted as a 21st\u00a0century, accelerated version of the building of the Trans-Siberian railway in the late 19th\/early 20th\u00a0century. Under the overarching framework of Eurasia integration, the interconnections with other corridors will be endless \u2013 from the INSTC to BRI projects part of the Chinese New Silk Roads, the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN.<\/p>\n

In a session focused on the\u00a0Greater Eurasia Partnership (GEP)<\/a>\u00a0Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Pankin praised this concept of Eurasia \u201cwithout dividing lines, uniting ancient civilizations, transportation corridors and a unified common space of 5 billion people\u201d.<\/p>\n

Inevitable connections were drawn \u2013 from GEP to the EAEU and the SCO, with the proliferation of multimodal transport and alternative payment systems. Khan Sohail, the deputy secretary-general of the SCO, remarked how virtually \u201ceveryday there are new announcements by China\u201d \u2013 a long way \u201csince the SCO was established 21 years ago\u201d, then based exclusively on security. Big developments are expected at the SCO summit next month in Astana.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sergey Glazyev, the minister of macroeconomics at the Eurasia Economic Commission, part of the EAEU, praised the EAEU-SCO progressive integration and fast-developing transactions in baskets of national currencies, something \u201cthat was unchallengeable 10 years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n

He admitted that even if GEP has not been formalized yet, facts on the ground are proving that Eurasia can be self-sufficient. GEP may be on the initial stage, but it\u2019s fast advancing the process to \u201charmonize free trade\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another key session in St. Petersburg was exactly on\u00a0the EAEU-ASEAN connection<\/a>. The ASEAN 10 already configure the 4th\u00a0largest trading bloc in the world, moving $3.8 trillion and 7.8% of global trade annually. The EAEU already has a free trade agreement (FTA) with Vietnam and is clinching another with Indonesia.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Northeast Asia. Which brings us to the ground-breaking visit by President Putin to the DPRK.<\/p>\n

A new concept of Eurasia security<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This was quite the epic business trip. Russia and the DPRK signed no less than a new Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement.<\/p>\n

On trade, that will allow a renewed flux to Russia of DPRK weapons \u2013 artillery shells to ballistics -, magnetic ore, heavy industry and machine tool industry, as well as the back-and-forth of an army of mega-skilled IT specialists.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-un described the agreement as \u201cpeaceful\u201d and \u201cdefensive\u201d. And much more: it will become \u201cthe driving force accelerating the creation of a new multipolar world.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to Northeast Asia, the agreement is nothing less than a total paradigm shift.<\/p>\n

To start with, these are two independent, sovereign foreign policy actors. They will not blackmailed. They totally oppose sanctions as a hegemonic tool. In consequence, they have just determined there will be no more UN Security Council sanctions on the DPRK enacted by the U.S..<\/p>\n

The key clause establishing mutual assistance in case of foreign aggression against either Russia or the DPRK means, in practice, the establishment of a military-political alliance \u2013 even as Moscow, cautiously, prefers to phrase that it \u201cdoes not exclude the possibility of military-technical cooperation\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agreement completely shocked Exceptionalistan because it is a swift counterpunch not only against NATO\u2019s global designs but against the Hegemon itself, which for decades has enforced a comprehensive military-political alliance with both Japan and South Korea.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translation: from now on there is no more military-political Hegemony in Northeast Asia \u2013 and in Asia-Pacific as a whole. Beijing will be delighted. Talk about a strategic game-changer. Accomplished without a single bullet being fired.<\/p>\n

The repercussions will be immense, because a broader concept of \u201csecurity\u201d will now apply equally to Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

So welcome, in practice, to Putin the statesman advancing a new integrated, comprehensive concept of\u00a0Eurasian security<\/em>\u00a0(italics mine). No wonder the mentally-impaired collective West is stunned.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gilbert Doctorow\u00a0correctly observed\u00a0<\/a>how \u201cPutin considers what NATO is about to do at its Western borders as the very act of aggression that will trigger Russia\u2019s Strategic Partnership with North Korea and present the United States with a live threat to its military bases\u201d in Korea, in Japan and in the wider Asia-Pacific.<\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t matter at all if the Russian response will be symmetric or asymmetric. The crucial fact is that the U.S. \u201ccontainment\u201d of the Russia-China strategic partnership is already unravelling in real time.<\/p>\n

In auspicious terms, Eurasia-style, what matters now is to focus on connectivity corridors. This is a story that started in previous editions of the St. Petersburg forum: how to connect the DPRK to the Russian Far East, and beyond to Siberia and wider Eurasia. The DPRK\u2019s founding concept of\u00a0Juche<\/em>\u00a0(\u201cself-reliance\u201d, \u201cautonomy\u201d) is about to enter a whole new era \u2013 in parallel to the NSR consolidation in the Arctic.<\/p>\n

Everyone indeed needs icebreakers \u2013 in more ways than one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nSat, 06\/22\/2024 – 19:50<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/we-need-icebreakers-and-more-strategic-partnerships<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We Need Icebreakers”… And More Strategic Partnerships Authored by Pepe Escobar, The St. Petersburg forum offered a wealth of crucial sessions discussing connectivity corridors. One…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1472794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1472794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}