EDITORIAL

The ‘Unifying Principle of Reason’ Needed

July 10 (EIRNS)—As the New Silk Road Spirit strengthens in Africa and Southwest Asia—with notable developments coming out of the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum today in Beijing, it is glaring that the policy morass in the Trans-Atlantic is highly dangerous, what with its tariffs clash, Theresa May’s competition with Angela Merkel over whose government will fall first, and wild behind-the-scenes wrangling over the City of London’s toxic derivatives as Brexit proceeds.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche addressed this today, stressing the need to uplift the discussion, and bring to bear a “unifying principle of reason,” to raise the level of approach to how to deal with ending toxic trade and finance practices, and fast. In short, what is required is a new world system of financial governance, based on the principles embodied in Lyndon LaRouche’s “Four Laws,” providing for stable banking (through the “Glass-Steagall” principle), a national credit bank, plentiful credit for priority infrastructure, and a science driver push for nuclear fusion and space advancement. In the process, Zepp-LaRouche said, there must be a mode of amiable relations of nations working together to solve problems. This is the Silk Road Spirit.

Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche have repeatedly laid this out over the decades, calling for a “New Bretton Woods” of world economic relations, which goes along fully with the World Land-Bridge development approach. It is now urgent to force thinking onto the level of understanding these concepts, and making the needed policy shift, given that there are multiple triggers in the dying Western financial system, that can cause a meltdown and chaos at any moment.

Survival requires that the United States and Trans-Atlantic change policy, and open immediate discussions on the needed new system of beneficial economic foreign relations to replace the Wall Street legacy of bad trade deals, which President Donald Trump rightly promised to correct. That can only be accomplished through bilateral sets of trade deals (including mutually unwinding pre-existing, unfair deals,) based on the common intention for increased growth for all concerned, including for third countries. All forms of trade aggression must end; there is no cause for trying to curb a trade partner’s development.

Of strategic danger right now, is the threat of losing the stock of good will between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping of China, due to the current aggressive U.S. tariff policy. China has issued clear warnings, which should be heard. The answer is not “free trade,” nor “WTO trade,” but new trade, credit and economic relations in the spirit of the New Silk Road development.

This spirit is manifest in the new accords struck today at the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF) in Beijing. The ministerial level meeting adopted a “Declaration of Action on an Arab Belt and Road Cooperation.” In his keynote address, President Xi Jinping announced several specifics, including a new $20 billion fund for rejuvenation and industrialization in the region, focussed on Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan. He said to the Arab state leaders, “You have created a splendid civilization,” and invoked the historic spirit of cooperation. “Our ancestors traveled the Silk Road overland and by sea. Whatever the obstacles, Chinese and Arabs were always good partners and brothers.” They were “far in distance, but close as family.”

NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Schiller Institute’s Helga Zepp-LaRouche Addresses Institut Mandela Conference in Paris

July 10 (EIRNS)—Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche was invited on July 6 to address the Institut Mandela for the African Economic and Consular Days in Paris.

Madame Zepp-LaRouche was invited to speak on the subject “Partnership, Inclusive Growth and Infrastructure in Africa” following the publication of her call to the European Union to apply the model of the Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un to a European development perspective for Africa. Her appeal, “History Is Now Being Written in Asia! The EU Summit Must Follow the Example of Singapore!” continues to be circulated in the African networks in France, as well as throughout Europe.

The first panel presented the “Singapore spirit” with the participation of the Ambassador of Eritrea, speaking on the end of the war with Ethiopia and the economic perspective for the biggest free trade zone in Djibouti, for real cooperation in the region. (Note also the historical accord between Ethiopia and Eritrea recently).

Following her presentation was Ghana’s Minister Plenipotentiary and Deputy Head of Mission Bonaventure Adjavor at the Paris Embassy, who developed the concept of a new era for Africa—a new era of manufacturing from raw materials, and no longer merely exporting them. He gave the example of cocoa, of which Ghana and Ivory Coast have 80% of world production, all of which goes for export. But he described that cocoa can be a primary material for manufacturing many products, including brandy, body lotion, chocolate, etc., and that the policy of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s government is to do that.

President Akufo-Addo is famous for his public lecture to visiting French President Emmanuel Macron during their joint press conference on Dec. 4, 2017, in which Akufo-Addo said Africa “can no longer continue to make policy for ourselves … on the basis of whatever support the Western world, or France, or the European Union can give us…. We have to get away from this mindset of dependency. … Our concern should be what do we need to do in this 21st century to move Africa away from being cap in hand … to have a mindset that says we can do it … and once we have that mindset we’ll see there’s a liberating factor for ourselves.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche then spoke, defining the long-term perspective for Africa and the world, presenting the “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” Second Edition report and the physical project for Africa within the framework of the Belt and Road dynamic, as with the high-speed train between Djibouti and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She also presented the other projects the Schiller Institute has developed or promoted, such as the Transaqua project to refill Lake Chad via a multinational navigable waterway, and the extension of the World Land-Bridge into Africa via a tunnel between Spain and Morocco and/or between Sicily and Tunisia, as well as via Southwest Asia.

The audience was very challenged by the optimistic vision of Africa, as Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche showed the photograph of Africa from space at night, as it is now, and as it would be in 2050, as lit up as Europe or the United States are at night today.

The 40 people attending or speaking all belonged to various institutions, such as the International Organization of La Francophonie, and were professionals in law, enterprise, public relations, and so on. Also present was the daughter of Amadou Hampâté Bâ (1900-91) who was a Malian writer and ethnologist. As with Cheikh Anta Diop, he is a very important African thinker for Europeans, in particular, to understand that Africa is a very old civilization.

Then during the final panel, one of the panelists brought in the economics of Alexander Hamilton, and how Africa has to apply the ideas of this manufacturing economy. He also mentioned that France’s great Jean-Baptiste Colbert had called Dutch physicist and mathematician Christiaan Huygens and Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini to France to develop a science academy, and asserted that Africa has to do the same today.

The Institut Mandela is dedicated to the strategic mission of Africa’s emergence as well as the “open society” values of peace through “intellectual diplomacy.” Its proposals are conveyed to public policymakers, the international community, private actors, and civil society, so that they can make visionary decisions. Its fundamental mission is to intellectually and institutionally reorganize African countries.

At China-Arab Forum, President Xi Calls Sino-Arab Relations ‘Old in Distance, Close as Family’

July 10 (EIRNS)—The eighth ministerial meeting took place in Beijing today of China Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), at which three accords were struck for development. Founded in 2004 by the Arab League and China,  Chinese President Xi Jinping addressed this year’s event, speaking intensely of the need for peace in the region. Among his announcements of new initiatives, he stressed the need for reconstruction in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan; and for development and peace, through a two-state solution for Palestine. He announced a grant of 100 million yuan for Palestinian economic relief and additional emergency assistance for the region through the UN Refugee and Humanitarian Aid Agency.

Xi opened his keynote at the Great Hall of the People, referring to the Silk Road, characterizing Sino-Arab connections are “both old and young.” They are “far in distance, and close as family.” Further, “our ancestors traveled the Silk Road overland and by sea, and whatever the obstacles, Chinese-Arab relations were always good.” Later in his speech, when speaking of people-to-people “inter-civilizational” exchanges, he told the Arab states’ representatives, “You have created a splendid civilization.”

President Xi presented four main points under the rubric of “a community with a shared future,” announcing several specific initiatives:

Trust: A just world should be pursued, with peace and stability in Southwest Asia, for which all nations must work together. A new $20 billion reconstruction fund will be set up for the region, giving special help to Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Jordan. A contingent of 500 medics will be sent to the region.

Rejuvenation: Among the goals of economic activity, nations should “synergize” energy resources; develop the “Blue Economy Corridor” (Maritime Silk Road,) and conduct other “oceanic” development, collaborate on satellite remote sensing, low carbon fuels, including the “peaceful use of nuclear power,” as well as hydropower, and solar and wind. A new China-Arab Bank will be set up with an initial capitalization of $3 billion.

China-Arab States Win-Win Trade: Pursue industrial parks and connectivity. Over the next five years, there can be $8 trillion in trade. The first-ever Arab states trade exhibit event will take place in Shanghai later this year.

China-Arab Inclusion in Mutual Learning: A China-Arab press center and digital portal will be set up, along with an arts festival. Arab states guests are to come to China, including 100 political leaders, 300 professionals, 100 religious leaders, 1,000 party leaders, and 10,000 trainees in various pursuits.

The CASCF conference approved three accords: a “Declaration of Action on Arab Belt and Road Cooperation,” a “Beijing Declaration,” and organizational action plan to develop the CASCF from 2018 to 2020.

After the meetings, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi briefed the media, emphasizing that China is helping Arab countries speed up industrialization and economic diversification, and that today’s meeting marks a new chapter in the process. Wang gave specifics on connectivity and projects, as reported by Xinhua: “Having started work on industrial parks in Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman, China plans to connect construction and management of the industrial parks with Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa Port, the port of Djibouti, and Port Said, said Wang.”

South Korean President in New Delhi To Enhance All-Around Ties with India

July 10 (EIRNS)—Following his meeting with the visiting South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Delhi this week, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told media that steps have been taken to upgrade the comprehensive economic partnership agreement between India and South Korea. “Seoul’s participation in the ‘Make in India’ mission has created many employment opportunities in India,” he said, reported Firstpost news website. During his July 8-11 visit, Moon and Modi inaugurated a Samsung cell phone manufacturing facility in the vicinity of New Delhi, which has been touted as the world’s largest.

The two leaders also signed what is called the Early Harvest Package (EHP) that would lead to an upgraded bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. “It is the right time to take our bilateral relationship to the next level. We will increase the levels of consultations and broaden our scope of understanding,” Moon said at a joint press address, The Hindu reported. An official from India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed at an official briefing that India and South Korea had agreed to include 11 items in the EHP and duties would be reduced/eliminated for these within a fixed time period.

During their meeting, India and South Korea discussed capacity-building programs which both countries would like to apply in Afghanistan, according to India’s Foreign Ministry Secretary (East) Preeti Saran, The Hindu reported.

Modi also credited Moon for initiating the peace process in the Korean Peninsula. “I believe that the positive environment that has been created is an effort of Moon,” he said. New Delhi is also a stakeholder in the peace process and will do its bit to contribute to peace in the region, Modi affirmed, reported Firstpost.

Valencia, Spain Fights for Rail Corridors Key for Belt and Road

July 10 (EIRNS)—Joaquin Francisco Puig, head of Spain’s Valencia province, flew to Brussels at the end of June to insist that the European Union’s Connecting Europe Facility 2 allocations include funding for the north-south “Mediterranean Corridor,” a railway connecting Spain’s Mediterranean ports, as well as the east-west rail line between Valencia’s Port and Portugal’s capital of Lisbon, and its Sines port on the Atlantic. Puig announced in Brussels that he would meet with Spain’s Development Minister upon his return to press the same projects.

Valencia is banking its economic future on playing a leading role in the Belt and Road Initiative led by China, and both rail lines are crucial for Spain’s full participation in that project.

The fact that Puig is taking up this battle is important from three standpoints:

1) Puig is a member of the governing Socialist Party which came to power last month, and his active campaign on this front could push the weak central government in the direction of the New Silk Road, which has not been seen in its agenda thus far.

2) He is speaking for the industrial and logistics interests around Valencia Port which have gone out nationally to mobilize hard for the Mediterranean Corridor on a non-partisan basis, a rare rise above usual corrupt politics.

3) His insistence that the Lisbon-Sines-Valencia rail connection is “fundamental” to the regional development which can be generated by the Mediterranean Corridor lays a basis for Portugal and Spain to join forces and coordinate the Iberian Peninsula’s participation in the Belt and Road.

U.S. POLITICAL & ECONOMIC

Trump: Meeting Putin Is Looking Easier than U.K. or NATO Chaos

July 10 (EIRNS)—President Trump sent the has-beens of the Old Order into new conniptions with his parting shot before heading over to Europe, delivered early this morning on the South Lawn before boarding Marine One.

“Well, it’s going to be an interesting time in the U.K., and it’s certainly going to be an interesting time with NATO,” he told reporters. “NATO has not treated us fairly, but I think we’ll work something out. We pay far too much and they pay far too little.  But we will work it out, and all countries will be happy….

“So I have NATO, I have the U.K., which is in somewhat turmoil, and I have Putin.  Frankly, Putin may be the easiest of them all.  Who would think?  Who would think?  But the U.K. certainly has a lot of things going on.”

So much for European Council President Donald Tusk’s whining today that President Trump must stop “criticizing Europe almost daily … appreciate your allies. After all you don’t have that many.”

Trump added to the furor, by suggesting that while in Britain, he might give a call to his friend Boris Johnson, who just quit as Theresa May’s Foreign Secretary the day before. Whether Theresa May remains in power or not, he replied when questioned, “that’s certainly up to the people, not up to me.”

As for Vladimir Putin, he wouldn’t answer if he’s friend or foe, but called him “a competitor,” and then reiterated his consistent theme: Getting along with Russia, China, others “is a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Retired Senior Figures Seek To Reduce Nuclear War Danger in Open Letter to Putin, Trump

July 10 (EIRNS)—Four senior U.S., European and Russian leaders who have joined together in the past to press for better U.S.-Russian relations to avoid nuclear war, today issued an Open Letter to Presidents Putin and Trump with their ideas for agreements to be adopted at their July 16 summit in order to stop the “dangerous drift” to nuclear escalation.

The letter, signed by former U.K. Defense Secretary Des Browne, former German Ambassador to the United States Wolfgang Ischinger, former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, and former Democratic U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn begins with the warning:

“The reality today is that we have entered a new era, in which a fateful error—triggered by an accident, miscalculation, or blunder—could trigger a nuclear catastrophe. The Trump-Putin summit is an opportunity to stop this dangerous drift. Reaffirming that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought, the United States and Russia could agree to specific steps at Helsinki to reduce nuclear risks.”

They propose four steps, the first addressing the danger of current “launch on warning” postures, which leave no time to identify whether a nuclear attack has been launched, or there is an accidental firing, before ordering a full nuclear response. “A clear directive by the two presidents to their military leaders to work to develop options” vis-à-vis this problem “would be a powerful signal to the American people, to the Russian people and to the world,” they argue.

Talks on “reducing and managing cyber nuclear risks,” to ensure that strategic nuclear facilities cannot be hacked, and actions to “restart bilateral crisis management dialogue, including among uniformed military leaders in charge of nuclear forces, and multilateral crisis management dialogue throughout the Euro-Atlantic region, to reduce military risks,” are also proposed.

Their fourth proposal, however, recognizes that U.S.-Russian coordination on more than bilateral issues is crucial to world peace. They want Presidents Putin and Trump to mandate continuing U.S.-Russian talks on “practical arrangements for the full and expeditious implementation of the commitments in the Singapore Summit Joint Statement.”

In the 1980s, American statesman Lyndon LaRouche put on the table a Grand Design to transform U.S.-Russian relations through a common commitment to cooperate in rebuilding a productive world economy, particularly in the Third World. As he rigorously elaborated in his March 1984 Draft Memorandum of Agreement Between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., only such an agreement is sufficient to eradicate the threat of nuclear war.

In Kabul, Pompeo Calls on Taliban To Make Peace in Afghanistan

July 10 (EIRNS)—Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a surprise visit to Kabul yesterday, after his East Asia tour, where he had meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. While there, he reiterated the Trump Administration’s calls for peace talks between Afghanistan’s government and the Taliban. He said the United States is committed to supporting an “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned” peace process under which the Taliban could return to the fold if they renounce terrorism, cut ties to al-Qaeda extremists and accept the principles of Afghanistan’s constitution, reported the Associated Press.

Pompeo stressed that the strategy announced last year by President Donald Trump, to increase pressure on the Taliban until they decide to negotiate, was working and would reassure the Afghans of U.S. support. “The strategy sends a clear message to the Taliban that they cannot wait us out,” he said.

The Taliban, despite the three-day ceasefire for Eid al-Fitr, have rejected talks with the government in Kabul. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement on Friday, July 6, saying the insurgents “are not interested in talks while foreign soldiers are still on Afghan soil.” The Taliban have reportedly said that they will only negotiate with the U.S. about the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

China Warns Against Letting Taiwan Issue Undermine Sino-U.S. Relations

July 10 (EIRNS)—The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a warning to the U.S. in the aftermath of the transit of two U.S. Navy Aegis destroyers through the Taiwan Strait on July 8, to not allow the Taiwan issue to undermine U.S.-China relations. “We have expressed our concerns to the US side on this,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during the ministry’s regular press conference on July 9.

“It must be pointed out that the Taiwan question bears on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and it is the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations. We urge the U.S. side to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-U.S. joint communiqués, and prudently and properly handle the Taiwan-related issues, lest it should undermine China-U.S. ties and the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE

Exploration of the Unknown Is the Impetus of Advancement, Says China’s Senior Astronaut

July 10 (EIRNS)—China’s first astronaut, and current director of China’s Manned Space Engineering Office Yang Liwei, says the timetable for deploying China’s space station is being accelerated, Xinhua reported July 8. Yang said that the core module will be launched in 2020 and two experiment modules will follow in 2021 and 2022. This was, in fact the original timetable, but there had been consideration of delay, due to rocket problems.

Yang reported that during the construction of the station, the number of manned space flights will rise to about five a year. This is a dramatic upgrade and challenge for manned space operations, since previously there has been a manned flight only once every two or three years. To carry out this pace of missions, an astronaut recruitment drive has been underway, and will be expanded, Yang said.

More philosophically, Yang said China’s reform and opening up over the past four decades have “emancipated mindset,” in Xinhua’s paraphrase. And the past 20 years have seen the rapid development of space capabilities. “I’m expecting more resources for the development of the space industry,” he said. “China’s space station will be a platform for more advanced space science experiments to serve economic and social development on Earth.”

Exploration of the unknown, he said, is the impetus of human advancement.

Europe Starts Work on a Mars Sample Return Mission. And the U.S.?

July 10 (EIRNS)—The European Space Agency (ESA) is moving ahead to start fleshing out possible designs for the vehicles it will contribute to a Mars sample return mission. ESA has awarded Airbus two contracts to start work on designing vehicles for the mission. A Sample Fetch Rover will launch to Mars in 2026, and retrieve 36 pen-sized sample tubes of Martian soil that have been collected by NASA’s Mars 2020 rover and left on the planet. The Sample Fetch Rover will pick up the samples and load them in a sample container into the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will blast off the planet. Then, ESA’s Earth Return Orbiter will catch the basketball-sized sample container, seal the samples in a biocontainment system, and bring the samples back to Earth.

ESA is making the assumption that NASA will be taking the lead, as it has for decades, in Mars exploration missions. Although others have tried, NASA is the only agency to have successfully landed a spacecraft on Mars.

But NASA has yet to get the go-ahead, or the funding, to start work on its part of a Mars sample return mission. Every scientific advisory group, including the National Academy of Science, has determined that bringing back samples will provide the most clarity, and perhaps definitive answer, as to whether there was, or is, life on Mars. Rather than complaining about how expensive such a mission will be, if the U.S. is going to play a leadership role in space exploration, it will have to step up to the plate.