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With Syria Crisis Postponed Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Can Focus on New Silk Road
14 September 2013
(EIRNS)—Not only has the Russian intervention on the Syria fiasco bought time for the U.S. Congress to tackle the real issues—Glass-Steagall and NAWAPA—but the same is true for the critical meeting, beginning today in Kyrgyzstan, of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). In addition to the six members (Russia, China, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan), there will be leaders of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran attending as well. The issues are crucial: what to do about Afghanistan when Obama pulls out next year, leaving the nation in chaos; how to deal with the "New British Opium War" from Afghanistan which is flooding Russia (and others) with opium; and, most important, getting great development projects going as rapidly as possible. Executive Intelligence Review has published a report on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s call for a "New Silk Road from the Pacific to the Baltic" when he stopped in Kazakstan last week (see EIR, Sept. 13, 2013, Vol. 40, No. 36), and an interview with Konstantin Sorkin, one of the authors of the report "Afghan Narcotrafficking: A Joint Threat Assessment" (see EIR, Sept. 6, 2013, Vol. 40, No. 35). Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will be attending the SCO—his first foreign trip since taking office on Aug. 4. He will hold a trilateral meeting with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, which will solidify cooperation regarding the British/Obama war plans in Southwest Asia, and will counterpose the great development projects across Asia. Russia is planning to turn over operation of the Bushehr nuclear facility to Iran within the coming weeks, and there may be further nuclear cooperation announced at the summit. China is involved in major oil and gas projects across the region, including pipelines from the region back into China. Pepe Escobar noted today in an article in the Asia Times titled "China Stitches Up (SCO) Silk Rd," that Ürümqi in China’s far western Xinjiang province has become the "communications base for the Eurasian corridor," with hundreds of computer comapies tied into the Central Asian nations. Escobar also notes that "while the (Washington) dogs of war bark, the (Chinese) caravan does deals."[MOB] |