Russia and Central Asia News Digest
Chinese President Hu Jintao Makes State Visit to Moscow
Arriving in Moscow May 26, the new President of China began his first overseas trip in Russia, a fact that was emphasized in Chinese and Russian media as indicating foreign policy priorities. Hu spent three days in bilateral talks, then attended the third heads-of-state summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on May 29. From there, he went to St. Petersburg to take part in the ceremonies for the city's 300th anniversary, and related diplomatic activities.
In an interview with Russia's Interfax news agency on May 24, Hu said that the development of Chinese-Russian relations was crucial for creating a multipolar world, and he also stressed the perspective of increasing economic and technological cooperation with Russia, especially in the areas of energy in general, including nuclear technology.
The Russian side likewise stressed bilateral cooperation "in the trade-economic, military-technical, science-technical, energy and transport spheres, nuclear energy, financial, space, aviation areas and IT, and other sectors that are of mutual interest," in the words of Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko. According to RIA Novosti, Yakovenko on May 23 called for China and Russia to boost "the share [in their trade] of high-tech production, machine building and electronics. Also the share of other products with added value has to be increased." The increase of benefits from industrial cooperation could be "achieved through the transfer of technology and bolstering ties between small and medium firms."
Following their talks Hu and Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that bilateral trade has recently doubled, to the level of $12 billion per year. They see that level as a way station, en route to a $20 billion annual volume of trade.
At a press conference on May 27 after their first official heads-of-state level visit (the two have met before), Putin and Hu emphasized both emphasized a multi-polar international system. "The world order should be built on the basis of clear and facile international rules and international law," Putin said. "The world can be and should be, multipolar, if we want it to be stable and predictable." The Chinese President said "the new international political and economic order should bring peace, development and benefit to all people and nationalities regardless of the color of their skin."
Both leaders pointed to passages in their joint declaration signed that morning, voicing concern about the Korean situation and the situation in Iraq. On North Korea, they stressed that the problems should be solved peacefully through diplomatic means, that a guaranteed nuclear-free status of the entire Korean Peninsula should be reached, but including firm guarantees also for the socio-economic stability of North Korea. Concerning Iraq, the two stressed that from the humanitarian to the economic reconstruction aspects, life in Iraq should return to non-military regime as soon as possible, and proceed under the central role of the UN and along the resolutions passed by the UN Security Council. The two leaders said, "it is necessary to guarantee Iraq's territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence, respect the will of the Iraqi people and its right to use the country's mineral resources."
Both leaders furthermore announced increased coordinated efforts internationally, to repair the damage international law and relations have suffered because of the Iraq war. In particular, they cited the two nations' roles in the UN Security Council, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Russian Foreign Ministry Stresses Russia-China-India Dialogue
On the eve of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti (published in Russian on May 23) that the relationship between Russia and China "is an important factor in international and regional security. The example presented by Russia and China demonstrates how harmonic relations can be achieved between major states, neighboring countries, between the West and East, the North and South, between societies with different political systems and cultural traditions."
Both Russia and China share deep concern "over a dangerous trend towards unilateral action in international affairs," and both view the United Nations and especially, the Security Council as having a "central role as the crucial mechanism" to achieve and develop a multi-polar world," Yakovenko said.
He added, "Russia and China attach great significance, to the development of the trilateral Russo-Chinese-Indian dialogue, which started with an informal meeting between the three countries' foreign ministers at the 57th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York." The three governments believe "that the practice of these meetings should be continued. Interaction between Russia, China, and India could become a useful format for the improvement of international and regional stability, and the counteraction of the contemporary era's threats and challenges." Specific importance is being attached, naturally, to the Asia-Pacific region, Yakovenko said.
Shanghai Six Institutionally Upgraded, After Moscow Summit
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization of, presently, six members (Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), at its third heads-of-state summit in Moscow May 29, passed a set of documents, one of which transforms the hitherto informal group into a full-fledged institution with an official emblem of its own.
The SCO will be chaired by a general-secretary, the first candidate for that job being China's present Ambassador to Russia, Zhang Deguang. The office of the general-secretary will be in Beijing; while an SCO secretariat for the fight against terrorism will be set up in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The secretariats will have a standing budget; summits will be held at least once a year. The next summit will occur in Beijing, in the autumn. All institutional measures will go into effect by Jan. 1, 2004.
At their concluding press conference, the Presidents of Russia, China, and Kazakhstan stressed that in addition to the fight against terrorism and the drug trade, for joint initiatives for an in-depth United Nations reform that strengthened the multipolar world order, intensification of economic cooperation not only among SCO members was important. The promotion of "the world economy's gradual and steady development for all countries' prosperity" is proclaimed a prime objective of the SCO in its Moscow Declaration.
The next summit planned for the autumn, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev said, will have as one of its priorities the formulation of guidelines for economic cooperation, notably in infrastructure and industrial development, but also in health care (e.g., SARS), science, and education. Putin said that a long-term cooperation agenda should be worked out, to create a framework for long-term, coordinated investments. Chinese President Hu Jintao stressed the importance of "boosting cooperation in the transport sphere, taking into consideration the region's needs," and of laying that out in a multilateral document "as soon as possible."
Putin: Europe Should Be an International Political and Economic Power
In his official message on the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, issued May 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Europe would more than benefit from good relations with Russia. "I have said more than once, that if Europe wants to be an independent and credible power center in the world, the shortest and most reliable way to reach this goal is to have good relations with Russia." A lot of people in Europe share this standpoint. Especially the potential of cooperation with the Russian economy is seen by many people in Europe, Putin added.
He also said that today, St. Petersburg still is what it was once designed for, when it was founded 300 years agoa window for Russia into the European West, as well as a window for Europe into Russia. Putin made special reference to the EU-Russia Summit, May 30-31.
The main diplomatic result of that EU-Russia meeting was the establishment of a permanent EU-Russia Council was established, to provide a framework for regular consultations not only between the EU Commission and the Russian Government as such, but also between the relevant government ministers. The Russian envoy for the council will have the status of a cabinet minister.
Russian news wires mentioned a speech by Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder before the summit session, calling for expanded trade and investments in Russia, as the main venue to also solve other problems that may still exist between Russia and the EU. Schroeder said that after the EU's expansion eastwards, in May 2004, it will account for 50% of Russia's foreign economic exchange and thereby be the main trade partner of the Russians.
Russia Responding to U.S. Utopians' 'Mini-Nuke' Policy
While striking a compromise with the Bush Administration around the UN Security Council Iraq resolution, Russian officials have sharply denounced the strategic madness of Donald Rumsfeld's plan to research "miniature" nuclear weapons, and have hinted of an "asymmetric" Russian response to these developments.
On May 23, a "highly placed" member of the delegation accompanying Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov in his talks with Secretary Rumsfeld and others in Washington, told Russian journalists that "Russia, in spite of the economic difficulties it has gone through over the last 10 years, has maintained a big potential in the military-industrial sector." "In fact," the source continued, "we are working on the creation of new types of weapons," including "weapons which could actually be regarded as strategic in character." He added that the new weapons "do not necessarily involve nuclear warheads," hinting at electromagnetic pulse weapons or other revolutionary areas where Russia is known to possess major capabilities. As for the U.S. plan to study developing "mini-nukes," allegedly for use against underground bunkers, the Russian official remarked, "there are other ways to destroy such targets."
Parallel with these statements, Russian military experts, including Dmitri Yevstafyev and Alexander Khramchikhin of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, spoke out on the implications of the Rumsfeld's plan to use "mini-nukes" in a future war, stressing that this danger must be taken extremely seriously. Indeed, "the very emergence of such an idea shows, that the Washington has de facto recognized its inability to attain its global ambitions on the basis of 'ordinary' military means alone." The fact that major ground forces will be tied up in the occupation of Iraq, greatly increases the likelihood of a U.S. use of nuclear weapons, Yevstafyev warned. The most obvious intended target for the mini-nukes would be North Korea, owing to the fact that major parts of that nation's military infrastructure, including command centers, weapons bases and production facilities, have been located in underground caverns and tunnels in mountainous areas. The same, it should be noted, goes for China.
Russia Quotes LaRouche on Dereg: Putting the 'Zubnuyu Pastu' Back in the 'Tyubik'
The June issue of the Russian financial monthly Valyutny Spekulyant (Currency Dealer) will carry a timely translation of Marsha Freeman's EIR article on the failure and rollback of electricity deregulation in California (see EIR, Jan. 31, 2003). In a brief introductory note, the editors make the point that at the very moment when Russia is proceeding with the breakup of United Energy Systems, the national power company, and deregulation of the electricity sector in general, the policies on which these steps were modelled have proven an ignominious failure in the United States. Accompanying the article are boxed quotes from key figures in the battle over deregulation, including the first Russian translation of Lyndon LaRouche's now-famous elaboration of "how to put the toothpaste back in the tube."
Valyutny Spekulyant has been carrying one or more articles from EIR in practically every issue, giving a significant number of Russian industry managers, as well as financial speculators, sustained exposure to LaRouche's uniquely competent economic and financial analysis.
In February, VS presented an article called "Greenspan Promises (To Print) More Money," a composite of several EIR articles that analyzed the Fed's move to a zero-interest policy of liquidity-pumping. The March issue included an article by Cynthia Rush on how international bankers, attempting to deal with the situation in Argentina, are really worried about Brazil. It was introduced by a polemical letter from EIR's Rachel Douglas, suggesting that Rush's article would be a useful corrective to a recent VS article that painted Brazil as a "success story" for following IMF conditionalities. Douglass pointed out that it was fear about a Brazil default that prompted the Fed and other central banks to resort to the "wall of money" policy in early 1999.
The April issue carried Richard Freeman's report on the prospective bankruptcy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
|