EDITORIAL
This Is the Moment for Change
June 19 (EIRNS)—Two events of the day point the way for how the New Silk Road paradigm is the means to overcome what is currently being whipped up in the Trans-Atlantic as inevitable, insoluble strife: the migrant crisis and trade war.
In the Americas, Bolivian President Evo Morales met in Beijing today with President Xi Jinping, and signed commitments for Belt and Road collaboration between Bolivia and China. Morales said it will mean economic development and peace throughout the continent. Also in China, is a delegation from the Dominican Republic, conferring on economic projects and business in the Caribbean. Generalized across Ibero-America, this activity—along with defeating the narco-criminals—can end the poverty and danger driving millions to flee their homelands. At present, 200 million out of the 650 million-plus people in Ibero-America and the Caribbean live in poverty, which can all be changed.
Secondly, the Japanese government is now working on specifics for first-ever cooperation with China on joint ventures in third countries, under the Belt and Road framework. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe this week spoke of how Japan’s “infrastructure exports” can be done on a collaborative basis. A task force is at work on selecting priority projects. This is a powerhouse arrangement.
Forcing a shift in the United States and Europe to this New Silk Road perspective is not a utopian dream. Change is possible. Now is the moment. The Singapore summit is the model—real, not hypothetical—for breaking with the past, and determining the future.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, reviewing the situation today, stressed that we have the biggest potential for change since the fall of the Berlin Wall. A new system is on the march in Asia, Africa and the beginnings in Ibero-America. We have to crack the situation in the Trans-Atlantic. The world urgently needs the new model of national relations.
Zepp LaRouche stated that in Europe there is growing recognition that the Western neo-liberal system has utterly failed. Look at what is offered as “solutions” to the migrant crisis, e.g., build internment camps in North Africa, says European Council President Donald Tusk. The German government, in particular, remains in crisis over this, as Chancellor Angela Merkel has a two-week deadline to come up with some answers, but she and others of the elites, are unwilling to accept that a change in principle is necessary. This is a moral crisis.
In the U.S. today, the same immoral attitude was on display, when Democrat partisans staged an outburst action in the name of concern for migrants, to disrupt the Congressional hearing, at which testimony was coming out from the Inspector General of the Justice Department, on how the corrupt FBI acted wrongfully against President Donald Trump. See the new statement on this from LaRouche PAC June 19, “Child Abuse Hypocrites! What Evil, Genocidal Twaddle,” which, among other concepts, points out that these same Democrats back the drug legalization/narco scourge that is killing people.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s new policy document, now in circulation in at least eight languages, is a strong push for the needed policy shift, here and now: “History Is Now Being Written in Asia—The EU Summit Must Follow the Example of Singapore!”
‘Change for the Better Is Coming, If You Fight for It’
June 19 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute today made the following announcement of the weekly strategic webcast featuring Helga Zepp-LaRouche, on Thursday, June 21, at 12:00 noon, on the Schiller Institute website:
There is an ongoing transformational shift underway in the world, as the era of geopolitics, with its destruction of nations through financial manipulations and wars, is being challenged by the emergence of a new era of “win-win” policies of mutual benefit, spearheaded by China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Developments in Asia, with the Trump-Kim summit in Singapore and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Qingdao, China, provide examples which show that peaceful economic cooperation is not only possible, but is already underway. The benefits of this new era can be seen in new infrastructure projects throughout Eurasia, Africa, and in South and Central America, and the clamor to be included is also heard now in a number of nations in Europe.
The growing likelihood of a Trump-Putin summit is part of this new geometry, an indication that the U.S. President is breaking out of the containment intended by the fraudulent, so-called Russiagate allegations. For this moment of great opportunity to be realized, there must be an elevation in both the capabilities of creative thinking, and passionate activation, of citizens of all nations. Schiller Institute founder and President Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s weekly webcasts are a critical part of elevating populations to the level required by this promising moment of history.
Help us organize to make these webcasts available to growing numbers of people, to bring new activists into the fight for the New Paradigm each week.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Child Abuse Hypocrites! What Evil, Genocidal Twaddle
June 19 (EIRNS)—LaRouche Political Action Committee issued the following statement today on its homepage:
It is no accident that the hoked-up image of Donald Trump heartlessly ripping crying children away from their mothers becomes the predominant media and political theme on the same day that the coup against Donald Trump is dealt huge and significant blows by the Justice Department Inspector General in testimony before the Congress. In fact, to make the point, the Democrats interrupted that hearing with catcalls about internment camps and other political theater.
The confrontation on our southern border is hardly a new problem. Since 2016, some 110,000 children and 200,000 Central American families have entered the United States illegally. President Barack Obama used forceful measures to stop this but his apparent “cruelty” escaped media attention. Ask the crazed Democrats what they have done about the genocidal conditions in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, countries which have been turned into failed narco-states ruled by violent gangs in a murderous replica of the feudalism and marches of death which characterized the Middle Ages. These are the same Democrats who avidly support the drugging of the citizens of the United States. These are the same Democrats who have no plan for the economic growth which would actually solve the problem, but instead play the fake game of “identity politics” in which people of color are set against “recalcitrant” white people in a war of each against all. Under conditions of economic turbulence, these are the people who are lighting the fuse of new genocides. In Europe, thousands have risked their lives to flee the certainty of war and death in North Africa while a corrupt, morally hectoring, and actually racist EU saddles the struggling Italian and Greek economies with supporting and sustaining them.
In August of 1971, the City of London succeeded in destroying the gold reserve monetary system and restructuring the world’s economy as a casino, operating to its sole benefit. A new class of professional managerial elites was set up to maintain a worldwide zero population growth regime in which the rich got much richer and everyone else was sucked into servitude of one sort or another. Economic development of the world, creating productive jobs in the United States and other advanced countries, fundamental research and development and the scientific discovery required for sustained economic growth, these fundamental planks of actual humanism, were abandoned. In their place was a social structure in which the developing countries were put in a permanent state of chaos and war and the classes of people deemed entitled to wealth in the advanced sector was shrunk to the upper 1 and 2% of the population. A huge part of this plan was competition for fewer and fewer jobs and lower and lower costs of labor, worldwide. Immigrants fleeing certain death and suffering in countries deliberately starved of actual development by the IMF and World Bank, were driven to undertake life-threatening journeys into the advanced sector, driving wages down even further in the new host countries. There was inevitable and absolutely predictable resentment from the former middle and working classes in the host countries as they descended into the gig economy and poverty. Among the new arrivals were murderous gangsters, such as MS-13, who brought their brand of vicious killing and rape to their new “homes.” The entirely fake and completely unnecessary “immigration” issue, with all its racist and deadly connotations, was created and continues to be played by the puppet masters.
Lyndon LaRouche forecast that August of 1971 was going to happen when no one else saw it coming. He has spent his entire life fighting against its consequences and bringing a new system into being. Now, there is a new spirit loose in the world as a result of the initiative undertaken by China to develop the world, an initiative reflecting LaRouche’s ideas for large-scale infrastructure and city-building projects to bring humanity into a living situation worthy of the human character. This spirit, and the bold determination of Donald Trump, are responsible for averting possible nuclear war with North Korea. LaRouche’s wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, in a June 16 statement, points to this spirit as the solution to the immigration and refugee crisis. China, Russia, the United States, and India should, right now, enter into a new four power agreement to undertake joint ventures to develop Africa, South and Central America, and the other underdeveloped areas of the world. In Central America, this means also an all-out effort to eliminate the drug gangs, and their international banking sponsors, while bringing millions into a modern economy and out of poverty and certain early death.
Here in the United States, LaRouche PAC, Lyndon LaRouche’s political action committee, has undertaken a campaign to steal the base out from under every Congressional and Senate candidate in the 2018 midterms [see LaRouche PAC’s Action Page]. We are seeking constituency leaders who will sign a pledge to end the coup against Donald Trump and to implement Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws for Economic Recovery: Glass-Steagall banking separation, a credit system funding essential infrastructure and technological advances, direction of the credit from that system only into projects which will raise living standards and the productivity of the population, a crash program to develop fusion power, a transformational energy source. Our foreign policy should be centered on joining China and other willing partners in developing the war ravaged and deliberately failed economies of the former “third world.” We are building a mass movement which will only support candidates based on this program. The opportunity before us now is huge. Everyone we encounter desires to overturn and end the old decrepit system, no matter how much its overlords squeal. The question is, what kind of future should we build? We ask you to join us in this great adventure. Join us. Volunteer for LaRouche PAC’s Campaign To Secure the Future now.
Explosive Horowitz Hearings, as Dem Partisans Stage Disruption under ‘Immigration’ Cover
June 19 (EIRNS)—In a joint hearing held by the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees June 19, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz continued his testimony about his explosive findings regarding the Hillary Clinton 2016 email investigation conducted by the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Today’s proceedings began with a pre-arranged demonstration by Democratic Congressmen concerning the President’s immigration policies led by an enraged Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and featuring nursing mothers with babies in the audience. As the President noted in a speech before the NFIB Small Business Association while these events unfolded, the immigration crisis which has become the rage of Washington over the past 48 hours was designed to drive the Horowitz hearings about FBI and Department of Justice misconduct out of the news cycle entirely. It is well known President Obama prosecuted over 500,000 immigrants from the ravaged countries of Central America, separated children from parents, and while earning the moniker “deporter-in-chief,” was never actually taken to task for his actions. But exposure of the illegal action against Trump by the FBI and Department of Justice and Trump’s success in defusing the Korean crisis required fabrication of this new crisis by Trump’s opponents, as if President Trump created the problem all by himself.
House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy led off today’s proceedings with an opening statement variously described as “scorching,” “incendiary,” and “excoriating.” Gowdy honed in on the lofty language and standards attached to the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI by its employees and the awesome powers possessed by this agency which literally can determine life and death. He said that in the Clinton investigation and in the Trump investigation, overt political bias for Clinton and against Trump had been the dominant dynamic in the senior leadership of the FBI. He slammed former FBI Director James Comey for allocating to himself the role of chief investigator, prosecutor, and judge in the Clinton investigation, based on the lofty vision of certitude falsely created by Comey’s own ego.
As with yesterday’s hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gowdy and his GOP colleagues focused on the kid-glove treatment afforded to Hillary Clinton by the FBI and DOJ in light of the subsequently revealed overt political bias of lead investigator Peter Strzok, his mistress, Lisa Page, and two other critical FBI employees, all of whom served in leading roles in the Clinton investigation, the Russia investigation involving the Donald Trump, and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Gowdy’s full opening statement is available on YouTube.
In his subsequent questioning of Horowitz, Gowdy conclusively demonstrated, with a timeline of Strzok-Page texts, investigative events, and decisions, that a bias in favor of Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump pervaded the FBI and Justice Department investigative teams. He pointed out that the decision whether to prosecute Clinton or not hinged on a debatable definition of intent under the espionage statute. But James Comey decided there would no prosecution even before Clinton, the best witness as to what she intended, was even interviewed. Gowdy said that the FBI 302 report presenting that interview and its result showed that those present, including Peter Strzok, did not even attempt to really explore the issue. Gowdy’s examination of Horowitz can be watched on YouTube.
Pompeo and Lavrov Discuss Russia-U.S. Relations, Syria and Korean Peninsula
June 19 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo initiated a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov June 18, according to statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry and U.S. State Department. In addition to the topics of Syria and the Koreas, the Ministry statement said, “Lavrov and Pompeo also discussed some aspects of bilateral relations, including the schedule of political contacts between Russia and the United States in the near future.”
Heather Nauert, U.S. State Department spokesman, said of the conversation, “Secretary Pompeo reemphasized the U.S. commitment to the southwest (Syrian) ceasefire arrangement that was approved by President Trump and President Putin one year ago.” She continued that Pompeo said that “it was critical for Russia and the Syrian regime to adhere to these arrangements and ensure no unilateral activity in this area,” reported TASS.
The Russian Foreign Ministry statement said: “The focus [of the talks] was on the Syrian settlement on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254, as well as the consolidation of efforts to resolve the problems of the Korean Peninsula.”
Later in the day, asked about the Singapore summit with Kim Jong-un at his Detroit Economic Club address, Pompeo reported that he found in both his meetings in Beijing after that summit, and his discussion with Lavrov that morning, that Russia and China “are excited that there’s this opportunity. It’s their backyard, after all,” he pointed out. “To eliminate the proliferation threat, the nuclear threat in North Korea, is something that they have long stated they were desirous for, but there wasn’t a motive force to drive it. So I am sure our interests diverge in certain places there, but the core opportunity to fundamentally reshape how North Korea thinks about itself and its place in the community of nations—both Russia and China are fully on board with our effort.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
EU Extends Sanctions against Crimea
June 19 (EIRNS)—The Council of the European Union decided yesterday to extend the sanctions against Crimea for another year until June 23, 2019. “This decision shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,” the statement said.
The EU’s sanctions policy against Russia includes three independent tracks: visa restrictions against Russian citizens, economic sectoral sanctions against a number of Russian state companies in oil, defense and financial sectors, and also restrictions against Crimea. All these packages were introduced in 2014. Two first sanctions packages are extended every six months, and the restrictions against Crimea once a year, TASS reports.
The sanctions were prompted by Crimea’s decision in 2014 to vote up a referendum to reunify with the Russian Federation.
More Tariff Threats: U.S. To Draw Up $200 Billion List for China
June 19 (EIRNS)—Peter Navarro, the White House National Trade Council Director, and long-time China-hater, is delighted at President Trump’s request yesterday for a list of items amounting to $200 billion of trade with China, as contingencies for 10% tariffs.
In a phone briefing today, Navarro dumped on China, for having said in recent talks, they are prepared to buy more from the U.S., to draw down the trade deficit. Navarro said, “If they thought that they could buy us off cheap with a few extra products sold and allow them to continue to steal our intellectual property and crown jewels, that was a miscalculation,” according to Reuters. Navarro said, “Talk is cheap,” and that China, “may have underestimated the strong resolve of President Donald J. Trump.”
Trump has called the question on trade, much of which is today characterized by lose-lose patterns of looting, resulting from decades of Wall Street/City of London dominance.
Meantime, with no U.S. contingency measures for transitions or buffers to U.S. producers, the speculative markets which are part of Wall Street trade, are having a field day, to the detriment of farmers and others. U.S. soybean prices plunged to their lowest level on over 10 years on the spot markets, with the prospect of losing the Chinese market, and having no alternative.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also got licks in on China yesterday, speaking at the Detroit Economics Club. He said that the U.S. is taking “a really hard line on foreign practices that harm America … [when it comes to intellectual property theft] everyone knows today that China is the main perpetrator. It’s at an unprecedented level of larceny…”
The Chinese Commerce Ministry said today that Beijing will respond to any additional list of tariffs by the U.S., with countermeasures that are “qualitative” and “quantitative.” The Ministry statement said, “The United States has initiated a trade war and violated market regulations, and is harming the interests of not just the people of China and the U.S., but of the world.”
EIR’s Washington bureau chief William Jones has contributed an exclusive commentary to China Watch today, headlined “A Trade War Is Not the Answer.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Senate Passes Defense Authorization Bill; U.S. Troops to Poland?
June 19 (EIRNS)—The U.S. Senate passed the fiscal 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, yesterday, by a vote of 85 to 10. The $716 billion bill includes $617 billion for the Pentagon plus $21.6 billion for Department of Energy nuclear weapons activities. The remainder of the bill covers the costs of overseas war operations. EIR has not yet reviewed the bill, but according to news reports, it includes a provision requiring the Pentagon to assess the feasibility of permanently stationing an armored brigade in Poland. It also includes a provision blocking President Donald Trump’s agreement with China to save the ZTE telecommunications giant, a provision that the President and his Capitol Hill allies have vowed to remove. The bill now goes to conference with the House, which passed its version at the end of May. It may be weeks, or even longer, before a compromise bill is hammered that can pass both chambers.
UN Reports 26,000 Yemeni Residents Have Fled Fighting in Hodeidah
June 19 (EIRNS)—UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters in New York yesterday that 5,200 families (about 26,000 people) had fled the fighting in Hodeidah, Yemen. “The number is expected to increase as hostilities continue,” he said. “People are trying to leave with rockets and mortars over their heads,” a local aid worker told Britain’s Independent. “Other people are besieged in their homes.” The Hodeidah airport is a ground zero target.
For the second time in four days, the Saudi/U.A.E.-led coalition is claiming the capture of the airport outside the city of Hodeidah. According to the Guardian, the seizure of the airport was confirmed by both TV broadcasts and eyewitness reports. Al Masdar News, however, reports that the Houthi forces at the airport are refusing to surrender, despite an intense barrage of Saudi air strikes. Whatever the case, it is clear that the fighting over the past few days has been intense.
The U.A.E. has issued statements claiming that they have contingency plans to maintain the flow of relief supplies into Hodeidah and to minimize the impact on the population of the fighting. However, the International Rescue Committee characterized those assurances as nothing more than “a publicity stunt … to draw attention away from the undue suffering the attack is causing.” Amanda Catanzano, the aid agency’s policy director, told the Guardian that the Saudi/U.A.E. coalition has been in control of Aden and other areas of southern Yemen for three years, “yet innocent Yemeni civilians suffer from a total lack of basic healthcare and critical life-saving services.”
The UN Security Council met for the third time in a week yesterday on the crisis in Yemen, and received briefings from the special UN envoy for Syria and UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, speaking to reporters afterwards on behalf of the Security Council which Russia chairs for June, called the situation in Hodeidah “disturbing,” and said, “Everybody shares the concerns of Mr. Lowcock.” The members of the Security Council, Polyanskiy said, “reiterated their call for the Ports of Hodeidah and Saleef to be kept open and operating safely given the continuing risk to the humanitarian situation.” They also welcomed proposals to restart the political process, underlining that a political solution remained the only way to end the conflict in Yemen.
UN’s de Mistura Meets with Guarantor Nations on Syria Toward a Constitutional Commission
June 19 (EIRNS)—Staffan de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy for Syria, met today in Geneva with high-level delegations from Turkey, Iran and Russia, the three guarantor powers for Syria under the Astana Process. “During the meeting, constructive exchanges and substantive discussions took place on issues relevant to the establishment and functioning of a constitutional committee, and some common ground is beginning to emerge,” de Mistura said in a statement issued afterwards. “The Special Envoy now anticipates inviting Iran, the Russian Federation, and Turkey back to Geneva in the next few weeks, in order to widen the common ground.”
Yesterday, de Mistura held bilateral meetings, including with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin. “There has also been a meeting between the Russian delegation and members of the Syrian opposition,” an unidentified source told TASS. Russia is “cautiously optimistic” about the formation of the Syrian constitutional commission after the first day of consultations on this issue with the United Nations, Turkey and some Syrian opposition representatives, Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev told Sputnik yesterday.
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
Washington and Seoul Cancel August Military Exercise
June 19 (EIRNS)—The United States and South Korea have cancelled Operation Ulchi Freedom Guardian military exercise, previously scheduled for August, while Washington and Pyongyang continue to discuss denuclearization following President Donald Trump’s historic meeting with Chairman Kim Jong-un in Singapore June 12, according to an announcement by Dana White at the Pentagon June 18.
South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam told PBS on yesterday that “both Seoul and Washington are on the same page regarding the important issues like the joint military exercises.” He continued, “having said that, the U.S. was also very clear that, as far as the talks with North Korea go in good faith, we can afford not to have the kind of the military exercises we used to have in the past.” Lim is in the United States this week for meetings, while North Korean leader Kim Jong-un arrived in China today for two days of meetings.
Lega Is the Top Party in Italy Polls
June 19 (EIRNS)—A poll conducted for the national TV channel La7 shows that the Lega would become the first party if Italian elections were held today. The margin with the M5S, coming second, is tiny—29.2% against 29%—but the growth is spectacular compared to its March 4 election result, when the Lega got about half as many votes as the Cinquestelle (M5S).
Italians are backing Lega head and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s hard line on illegal immigrants, but also other aggressive moves in defense of Italian producers against the EU, such as Agriculture Minister Gian Marco Centinaio’s decision to veto the CETA free trade agreement between the EU and Canada. Today, Centinaio was in Brussels at a meeting on EU agricultural policy and delivered another broadside, demanding protection for Italian rice and sugar producers, hit hard by the EU free trade policies.
Bolivia and China Sign ‘Strategic Association’ Agreement
June 19 (EIRNS)—During his June 18-19 state visit to China, Bolivian President Evo Morales and China’s President Xi Jinping elevated bilateral relations to the status of “strategic association,” by which they will deepen cooperation in a variety of sectors as well as coordinate on important international issues and at the United Nations. A special focus of their discussion was on advancing the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and Morales praised China for its efforts to create “a new type of international relations” in this context.
On June 13-14, Morales had a state visit in Russia, during which he and President Vladimir Putin also elevated their bilateral relations to the status of a strategic association. While in Russia, Morales indicated his interest in allying with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as well.
In a two-hour meeting June 18 with Xi Jinping, the two leaders signed an 11-point joint declaration detailing the specific areas in which they will expand cooperation—infrastructure, industrialization, finance, trade, manufacturing, science and technology (including aerospace), education and culture among them—and also signed a document committing themselves to jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative. Morales expressed the hope that by working together to build the BRI, this will also contribute to expanding cooperation between China and Ibero-America, Xinhua reported.
In terms of financing for development, the joint declaration emphasizes Bolivia’s intention to complete its application for membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). China’s Eximbank will make a credit line available to assist Bolivia in building a command-and-control center for a subregional security system, and the China Development Bank will be helping to finance construction of the Bombeo-Tuneo highway.
Dominican Republic Delegation: China Has Shown Us the Path to Progress
June 19 (EIRNS)—A large delegation from the Dominican Republic has been in China this past week, to discuss strengthening economic and trade cooperation, following the May 1 establishment of diplomatic relations. The delegation is led by Finance and Planning Minister Isidoro Santana, who told China Daily that China has “shown us the path to permanent progress.”
Santana’s delegation was warmly welcomed by the head of the Chinese Council for Promotion of International Trade who held a seminar including 200 top Chinese executives to discuss how they might aid the Dominican Republic in building the infrastructure it so urgently needs—ports, highways, sanitation, urban development, etc.
Santana spoke effusively about the positive changes he’s seen in China over the years, and commented that while the U.S. remains his country’s main trading partner today, he’s confident that within a few years, China will hold that position.
South American Bioceanic Railroad Advances at Taskforce Meeting
June 19 (EIRNS)—A framework agreement formalizing the functioning of the Bioceanic Taskforce (GOB) for the first South American transcontinental railway was signed on June 15 at the taskforce’s latest meeting, hosted by Peru’s Minister of Transport Edmer Trujillo. The taskforce is promoting the southern route of the transcontinental, running from Brazil to Peru through Bolivia, with a branch extending into Paraguay.
Joining Trujillo at the meeting were Bolivia’s Public Works Minister Milton Claros and the Vice Ministers of Brazil’s Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation Ministry and Paraguay’s Public Works Ministry, Herbert Drummond and Agustin Encina, respectively. The Ambassadors of Switzerland, Germany, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay; the Peruvian Foreign Ministry’s Director General for the Americas Elizabeth Astete; head of economy and trade of the EU Embassy to Peru Mauro Mariani; and two development banks.
“New winds of infrastructure integration are blowing in the region,” Peru’s Ministry stated in its press release. It cited Minister Trujillo’s welcoming remarks to the meeting, that “we are seriously committed to the Bioceanic Railway Corridor. We are committed to working together to go forward and complete this very important project, which will integrate us and lead to our countries’ development.” Trujillo briefed participants on the status of Peru’s feasibility study for the project, which not only defines the projected route inside Peru, but also includes an assessment of the economic feasibility and port requirements for the route.
According to the regional logistics and trade website, Todologistica News, the Brazilian representative surprised the meeting with its statement that Brazil envisages moving some 40 million tons of cargo along the railway corridor, a far greater figure than the 10 million tons previously discussed.
While China is not yet a participant in the southern bioceanic route planning, its participation will be crucial.
Kim Jong-un Visits Beijing for Third Time in Three Months
June 19 (EIRNS)—North Korean leader Kim Jong-un began his two-day visit to Beijing today, the third visit in three months, and held talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This time the visit was announced beforehand, and underlines the close relationship the two countries have developed in the course of beginning a dialogue with the United States. President Xi said that he hoped the U.S. and the D.P.R.K. could move forward with the measures they had agreed to at their historic summit.
Xi also indicated that Kim’s visits had opened a new chapter in the two countries’ relations.
Kim said that the Korean people had a great deal of trust in China, and expressed great appreciation for China’s promotion of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and its important role in protecting the Peninsula’s peace and stability. Kim said that the D.P.R.K. “hopes to work with China and other concerned parties to promote and establish a solid, long-lasting peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula.”
Earlier, President Xi held a welcoming ceremony for Kim, for which Xi’s wife, Peng Liyuan, and Kim’s wife, Ri Sol Ju, joined their husbands in the Great Hall of the People.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Kenya Thanks China for Helping Support Science in Africa
June 19 (EIRNS)—Government and academic leaders in Kenya hailed China’s support for scientific research in Africa on June 16 in Nairobi, at the Sino-African Joint Research Center at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.
The Center was established in 2013, and has 45 research programs on biodiversity, pathogenic microorganism detection, geographic science and remote sensing, high-yield and high-quality crop cultivation demonstrations, and land and water resource management. Over 100 scientists and senior technicians from 13 African countries have been trained there.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Education Amina Mohammed said, “The collaboration between scholars from the two sides, including student exchanges, has further strengthened our bilateral economic relations.” She said that the China-Africa research center will enhance cooperation in human resource training, and “ensure cutting-edge research and various technological innovations in different fields of science and technology.
