In this issue:

New Railway To Link Russia, No. Korea, and China

Philippines Threatened with 'Argentina Treatment,' as Peso Continues Slide

U.S. Official: Pakistan Gave Uranium Bomb to N. Korea

Russia-India Defense Talks on Military-to-Civilian Conversion

French Ambassador Opposes Republic for Nepal

Nepal Should Become Land-Bridge Between China and India

India To Build World's Largest Gas-Based Power Plant

Karzai and U.S. Military Exchange Words

From Volume 3, Issue Number 6 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published Feb. 10, 2004
Asia News Digest

New Railway To Link Russia, No. Korea, and China

A 1,380-kilometer-long railway will be built in Northeast China, along the border with Russia and North Korea, the Chinese Ministry of Railways has announced. The railway will create a "golden" transport passage from the inner regions of Northeast China, the old industrial base, to the sea and the outside world.

The railway's route will go from Suifenhe River in northern Heilongjiang Province, which borders North Korea, to Benxi, Dandong, Zhunaghe, and Dalian in Liaoning Province. Dalina is an important port at the mouth of the Bohai Sea, where it joins the Yellow Sea surrounded by the Korean peninsula and the east coast of China.

The region is very rich in resources, including minerals and lumber. The problem, however, has always been the shortage of efficient transportation lines to the outside world. This big new rail line should be completed in 15 years, and will eventually connect 10 cities and 30 countries in Northeast China. The new railroad will also greatly promote trade between China and Russia, and North and South Korea.

Philippines Threatened with 'Argentina Treatment,' as Peso Continues Slide

While other Asian currencies are revaluing upwards against the collapsing dollar, the Philippine peso is falling fast, skidding to 56.20 to the dollar—a record low. The peso is even lower in foreign currency markets. This is a 4% drop so far this year, which must be added to the dollar fall to measure the real rate of collapse.

With the economy deregulated and privatized to the hilt, they have little left to strangle to meet the foreign debt demands. The stock market is also collapsing, falling over 4% on Feb. 3 alone.

Standard Chartered Bank released a study headed by their SEA man Steve Brice which warned that "the country could slip onto a foreign debt crisis like what happened to Argentina if the winner in the May 10 Presidential election failed to implement fiscal reforms and restore investor confidence," according to the Feb. 4 Philippines Inquirer.

U.S. Official: Pakistan Gave Uranium Bomb to N. Korea

An unnamed "high official in the U.S government," travelling to Seoul with Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly, indicated what will be Cheney and the neo-cons' line of intervention against the fact that their "uranium scandal" around North Korea, has all but collapsed.

The U.S official told the Korean press on Feb. 2 that the revelations by Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan were very serious regarding North Korea as well as Iran, and that specifically, Pakistan had passed on to North Korea the enrichment technologies for making weapons-grade uranium. The North Koreans and Chinese, and the recent U.S. delegation to North Korea, have said enriched uranium does not exist in North Korea.

"In reaction to North Korea's sudden change in its mind, denying possessing of a highly enriched uranium (HEU) program, a high official in the U.S. government said on Feb. 4 that it is regrettable that the country was still denying the existence of its HEU program," Chosun Ilbo reported. "The official refuted North Korea's claims, saying that the United States has concrete evidence that North Korea has an HEU operation.

"Pakistan's Abdul Qadeer Khan, who was a frequent visitor to Pyongyang in the 1990s, and four others, have confessed to passing nuclear secrets to groups working for Iran, Libya, and North Korea, a Pakistani official close to the probe into allegations of nuclear proliferation, said on Feb. 1," the paper added.

Russia-India Defense Talks on Military-to-Civilian Conversion

Representatives of the Russian and Indian defense sectors will discuss new military-to-civilian conversion programs at the "Defexpo India-2004" military exhibition, which opened in New Delhi on Feb. 4

"Considering that enterprises of the defense industry, both in Russia and China, form the basis of the high-tech complex of the economy, cooperation between them also in the field of military-to-civilian conversion programs, has lately begun to be established," Novostii quoted an expert of Rosoboronexport as saying (Rosoboronexport is Russia's only state mediator for military-technical cooperation with foreign partners). It organized the Russian section at the exhibition.

Rosoboronexport said that many Russian enterprises, known in India for producing the world's best military hardware, also are active in producing dual-purpose and civilian products.

The spokesman pointed to the Uralvagonzavod Association, which supplies T-90S combat tanks to India, and also produces an entire range of road-building machines, freight and tank cars for trunk railways, and container-tanks. Armored vehicles producer Kurganmashzavod also produces amphibious cross-country vehicles and other such products.

Rosonboronexport is looking to "the expansion of Russia's military-technical cooperation with India and other countries in the area," its spokesman said.

French Ambassador Opposes Republic for Nepal

The French Ambassador to Nepal, Claude Ambrosini, told the Nepal News of Katmandu on Feb. 2 that France favors a multi-party system and constitutional monarchy in Nepal. He also said that he will not support the demand for a republican set-up in Nepal, as demanded by the protesting Nepali students recently. "We have been repeatedly saying that we support the existing arrangement, i.e., multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy."

Ambassador Ambrosini also pointed out that he, on behalf of France and the European Union, has called upon all constitutional powers to "work together." He told them confrontation will not resolve the crisis.

Nepal is in the throes of a violent uprising, staged by Maoists, and targetted against the monarchy and the parliamentary democracy. Until now, India and the United States were the only countries who had shown direct interest in Nepal's domestic affairs. This is the first time that the involvement of the EU has surfaced.

Nepal Should Become Land-Bridge Between China and India

Dipak Chatterjee, Secretary of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry, speaking at a conference of the Commission of India-Nepal Trans-Governmental Cooperation held at Katmandu, Nepal, pointed out that India and China trade entirely by sea. Chatterjee suggested that Nepal, with its special geographic advantage, should act as a bridge in the trade between India and China.

Chatterjee said that this Indian proposal had received a positive response from Nepal, and that, as a result, India and Nepal have decided to improve the infrastructure of the existing four customs facilities to meet the needs of the increasing cross-border trade in the future.

Chatterjee also pointed out that if Nepal could act as a trade-bridge between China and India, it would not only bring down those countries' bilateral trade costs, but also create a new trade and investment opportunity for Nepal, China's People's Daily reported Feb. 3.

India To Build World's Largest Gas-Based Power Plant

India's Reliance Group of Industries has proposed to set up a 3,500-MW gas-based power plant in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, involving a total cost of Rs.100 billion, Observer Research and Foundation reported on Jan. 27.

The gas plant will source natural gas from Reliance Group's gas fields in the Krishna-Godavari river basin, off the coast of the state of Andhra Pradesh, and would supply power to the consumers at about US4.5 cents per unit—about one-third of what the Enron Corp. was charging the Maharashtra State Electricity Board in the 1990s.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous of India's states, suffers from chronic power shortages. The state still has 40,000 villages without electricity. The rest of the state, where electricity is supplied, faces a peak shortfall of about 1,200 MW.

Karzai and U.S. Military Exchange Words

The U.S. Commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, on Feb. 3 summarily dismissed Afghan President Hamid Karzai's claim that the U.S. air strike on Jan. 17 in Uruzgan province had killed civilians. Lt. Gen. Barno said they were "suspected Taliban leaders" and the two-pronged approach by the United States (going for a spring offensive and doling out millions for Afghan reconstruction) would sound a "death knell" for the insurgents this year.

On Feb. 2, President Karzai had said Interior Ministry officials, who travelled to the air-strike site about 250 miles southwest of Kabul, found that the 10 killed were civilians, including women and children.

Civilian casualties are a setback for the U.S., as the military installs bases across some of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces, as part of a drive to bolster the Karzai government, which is planning to hold Presidential elections in June. Washington also has spread the word around that its military is preparing for a spring offensive against al-Qaeda and Taliban militia.

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