{"id":1500475,"date":"2024-11-05T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1500475"},"modified":"2024-11-05T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T12:00:00","slug":"escobar-the-roadblocks-ahead-for-the-sovereign-harmonious-multi-nodal-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/escobar-the-roadblocks-ahead-for-the-sovereign-harmonious-multi-nodal-world\/1500475\/","title":{"rendered":"Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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

The Kazan lab has laid out several geoeconomic road maps, and is seriously taking the inevitable roadblocks into account…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

We will need weeks, months, years to fully grasp the enormity of what took place in Kazan during the annual BRICS summit under the Russian presidency.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the moment let\u2019s cherish arguably the most appropriate definition of BRICS as\u00a0a laboratory of the future<\/a>: this lab, against nearly insurmountable odds, is actively engaged in creating a\u00a0Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World.<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course the challenges are immense. In his post-BRICS assessment, when addressing the sustainability of supply chains, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov \u2013 the top Russian sherpa throughout the year, performing impeccably \u2013 stressed the \u201cunacceptability of illegitimate unilateral sanctions applied by the Western group against many members of BRICS, linking sanctions with the climate agenda and human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is only one of several topics of contention that the BRICS insist must be addressed as part of a \u2013 possible? \u2013 deep reform of the current system of international relations.<\/p>\n

The extremely detailed \u2013 and quite polite \u2013\u00a0Kazan Declaration<\/a>, outlining all that needs to be reformed, may not have been forceful enough to assuage the mounting anger and perennial fears expressed non-stop by the Global Majority.<\/p>\n

Criticism that the Kazan Declaration in many aspects just\u00a0replicates<\/a>\u00a0silver-wrapped blah blah blah peddled by the G7 and the G20 (whose summit, next month in Rio, is actually being hijacked by the G7) does proceed.<\/p>\n

For a number of reasons, including internal disagreements, the BRICS \u2013 defined by President Putin as not an \u201canti-Western\u201d but a \u201cnon-Western\u201d group \u2013 are proceeding with extreme caution not to directly antagonize that dangerous cornered animal, the \u201crules-based international order\u201d Hydra.<\/p>\n

The Kazan Declaration is not a revolutionary document; rather it is a letter of intentions for the whole Global South.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It does not go against \u201cglobal governance\u201d and the \u201ccentral role of the UN\u201d \u2013 as much as the UN has been reduced to an empty shell, coerced by its dodgy deals with the World Economic Forum (WEF), WHO and NATO.<\/p>\n

It does not go against the leading role of the IMF in global finance.<\/p>\n

It does not go against the UN Agenda 2030 \u2013 redacted by the WEF and the Davos gang \u2013 for sustainable development supported by hazy \u201cshareholders\u201d, an euphemism for Big Pharma, Big Tech and Big Banking.<\/p>\n

It does not go against the WHO and its \u201ccentral coordinating role\u201d in solidifying the \u201cinternational pandemic prevention, preparedness and response system\u201d \u2013 as in the next pre-planned\/predicted pandemic is just around the corner.<\/p>\n

And it does not go against the dreaded\u00a0UN Pact for the Future<\/a>, which is essentially the softly softly implementation of the Davos-penned Great Reset.<\/p>\n

Lab moving to testing models non-stop<\/strong><\/h2>\n

What must be scrutinized from now on is the \u201cdevil in the details\u201d process of establishing facts on the ground \u2013 as in President Putin in Kazan suggesting a new BRICS funding\/financing platform bypassing the IMF and the World Bank. That\u2019s what establishing a post-Bretton Woods system means in practice.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s still a long way away. Kazan is just the departure station for the journey. When the BRICS+ high-speed train gets there \u2013 the current 9, plus still indecisive Saudi Arabia, plus the 13 new partners \u2013 it will be imperative to form a BRICS secretariat, and develop a joint, integrated Economic Development, Trade, and Defense policy.<\/p>\n

And then, arguably in the next decade, the BRICS may finally agree on a New Reserve Currency \u2013 which may be called the virtual BRICS currency -, quite similar to the IMF\u2019s SDR (Special Drawing Rights) mechanism, but totally independent from the IMF and the U.S. dollar: a currency based on the weighted average of all BRICS nations\u2019 currencies.<\/p>\n

Yaroslav Lissovolik has been a crack analyst of the BRICS evolution since the past decade. In a working lunch in Moscow nearly six years ago, he offered me a concise presentation of his idea of creating a BRICS currency called 5R \u2013 then based on the ruble, renminbi, real, rupee and rand.<\/p>\n

Lissovolik has\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0how BRICS in Kazan have expressed support to the WTO \u201cas the core of a rules-based multilateral trading system\u201d (translation: not rocking the boat for the moment).<\/strong><\/p>\n

BRICS also expressed support\u00a0<\/strong>for\u00a0the IMF<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cthat is at the center of the Global Financial Safety Net of the world economy\u201d \u2013 while asking for \u201cexpanding the share and the representation of the Global South\u201d (that will fall on deaf Hegemon ears). BRICS also supports the G20 (let\u2019s see what transpires in practice at the summit in Rio next month).<\/p>\n

When it comes to the NDB \u2013 the Shanghai-based BRICS bank \u2013 now that\u2019s where the action should be. Lissovolik noted how BRICS is making the right moves: asking for greater use by the NDB of national currencies (for the moment it\u2019s a pitiful less than 30%); and inciting it to attract more members and finance more projects across the Global South.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the BRICS\u2019 Contingency Reserve Arrangement (CRA), Lissovolik correctly notes there\u2019s still too much to do. The CRA, as the joint statement by the BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors issued a week before Kazan has outlined, offers financial support \u201cduring the times of balance of payments crises and safeguards their economic stability\u201d. What the BRICS need to do, fast, is to incorporate all the currencies of the 9 members to the basket.<\/p>\n

Finally there\u2019s the Holy Grail: cross-border settlements. As I examined\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and that was plain to see in Kazan \u2013 BRICS are still in the stage of discussing and testing models. They are all on the table now \u2013 and quite a few will be tested within the next few months.<\/p>\n

Lissovolik pointed to three \u201ctracks\u201d that should pick up speed as fast as possible: trade liberalization (ongoing); BRICS single currency (still a long way away); and \u201ccooperation among the Central Banks of BRICS economies in the sphere of CBDC inter-operability\u201d (the Russian Ministry of Finance is ahead of everyone on it; breakthroughs expected soon).<\/p>\n

Welcome to the BRICS North-South New Silk Road<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The big BRICS breakthroughs are on geoeconomics \u2013 all revolving around connectivity corridors.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INSTC): multi-modal (ship, rail, road); 7,200 km long; crisscrossing Eurasia, de facto connecting the Baltic \u2013 and the Arctic \u2013 via the Caspian with the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.<\/p>\n

Strategically, the INTSC not only connects three top BRICS \u2013 Russia, Iran, and India \u2013 but further on down the road, also Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkiye, Ukraine (post-war), Belarus, Oman and Syria, with Bulgaria as an observer member. <\/strong>The INSTC will have three major axes: Western (Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran); Trans-Caspian (via the Russian ports of Astrakhan and Makhachkala); and Eastern (Russia-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran by rail).<\/p>\n

Call it the BRICS North-South New Silk Road. It\u2019s no wonder that Putin in Kazan singled out the INTSC \u2013 alongside the Arctic Silk Road (that\u2019s the Chinese denomination) \u2013 as the top two developing connecting corridors of the future. The INSTC will allow transit time cargo of only 15 to 24 days, compared with 45 to 60 days via the Suez Canal.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the East-West Transport Corridor \u2013 encompassing Russia, China, Mongolia, North Korea and Kazakhstan, based mostly on the 10,000 km long Trans-Siberian Railway, soon to be upgraded. And of course the Mongolian Steppe Road, planned ten years ago and bound to include a 997 km long Russia-China expressway.<\/p>\n

On top of all these three corridors, Russia wants to shape a variant: a Central Eurasia Transport Corridor from Russia to Mongolia and Xinjiang in China, in fact upgrading the Trans-Mongolia Railway, a branch of the Trans-Siberian that starts in Russia near Ulan-Ude, in the lands of the Buryats.<\/p>\n

The Northern Sea Route \u2013 the Russian terminology for the Arctic Silk Road \u2013 is totally freaking out the NATOstan sphere and its Nordic Council, which are predictably way behind Moscow in developing Arctic infrastructure and only obsessed with militarization.<\/p>\n

Putin has not ceased to stress the Russian federal push for the construction\/upgrading of Arctic airports, ports and air defense as well as the astonishing ramping up of the size \u2013 and scope \u2013 of the Russian nuclear and diesel icebreaker fleet, plus the launch of space-based Arctic monitoring systems.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, Russia\u2019s BRICS partners have been heavily encouraged to be on board of economic and scientific cooperation projects across the Arctic.<\/p>\n

So in a nutshell, the Kazan lab has laid out several geoeconomic road maps, and is seriously taking the inevitable roadblocks into account. What matters is that the high-speed train has already left the Kazan station; now it\u2019s just a matter of picking up inexorable, irreversible speed.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 11\/05\/2024 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/escobar-roadblocks-ahead-sovereign-harmonious-multi-nodal-world<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escobar: The Roadblocks Ahead For The Sovereign Harmonious Multi-Nodal World Authored by Pepe Escobar, The Kazan lab has laid out several geoeconomic road maps, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1500476,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1500475","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\/1500475","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=1500475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1500475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1500475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1500475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1500475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}