EDITORIAL

The World Is Turning Towards the New Silk Road

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Across Europe, Africa, Ibero America and Asia, nations are breaking from the straitjacket of the British Imperial order under the IMF and the European Union, in favor of collaboration with China and Russia in the spirit of the New Silk Road. The “post-war liberal order,” as the British and their American assets like to call it, which, they claim, must be preserved at all costs, is no longer able to restrain the human optimism which is gripping nations, moving them to declare their freedom from forced poverty—both economic poverty and poverty of spirit.

El Salvador, a nation entrapped in poverty and the violence of the drug lords feeding the American drug epidemic, has just joyously announced that it has broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established relations with Beijing. President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, in announcing the change, captured the spirit of the New Silk Road, saying the change was aimed at realizing his promise to create the conditions necessary to provide a decent life for all the people, to “bring benefits to the country and offer extraordinary opportunities on the personal level to each of you.” On the same day, Sanchez Ceren met with the Presidents of neighboring Honduras and Guatemala on a separate integration project. Both of those nations still maintain relations with Taiwan, not with China, but they cannot but see the potential transformation taking place Central and South America through the New Silk Road. In December, Xi Jinping will be visiting Panama, which established relations with Beijing in June 2017. On the agenda of all such meetings is now basic infrastructure, the building block of free, modern nations, which has been denied them under the IMF conditionalities.

It is expected that every African head of state, or nearly so, will be attending the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing on Sept. 3-4. As reported in depth in the Schiller Institute report The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge, Vol. 2,China’s Belt and Road has already transformed Africa, with great projects such as the Ethiopia-Djibouti railway and Kenya’s Mombasa-Nairobi railway, with much more in the works.

And now, in Europe, the new government in Italy has created a “Task Force China,” dedicated to making Italy “stand as privileged partner and leader in Europe in strategic projects such as the Belt and Road Initiative and Made in China 2025.” Two government delegations are going to China from Aug. 27-Sept. 2, to consolidate this new relationship. The government is telling the EU clearly that they must allow Italy to break from the 3% limit on deficit spending, that the disastrous collapse of the Morandi bridge in Genoa demonstrates that EU restraints are killing people, and must be changed. The EU is no longer the only game in town.

The momentum cannot be stopped, other than through war or an uncontrolled disintegration of the Western financial system. A primary driver of war is that bubble in the trans-Atlantic financial system, swamped with $1.5 quadrillion in derivatives, mostly worthless gambling debts. The West has a choice: Do nothing while the old order explodes in financial chaos and war, or follow the lead of the Schiller Institute initiative calling on Presidents Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet, immediately, to initiate a New Bretton Woods system, to replace the dying Western monetary system with a new, fixed-exchange rate credit system, to facilitate the New Silk Road process reaching into every corner of the globe. Sign and circulate the petition, “The Leaders of the United States, Russia, China and India Must Take Action!”

President Trump has made clear that he intends to be friends with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, even while hysteria reigns against China and Russia in the Congress and in the degenerate and hateful U.S. and European press, and even within his own administration. Obama’s degenerate CIA chief John Brennan, who coordinated (and still coordinates) the British intelligence campaign to bring down President Trump, has gone too far in accusing Trump of treason for establishing a personal, friendly relationship with Putin. The entire Brennan/Mueller operation now stands exposed, and can and must be brought down, allowing the President to move forward with his intention to end the world divide, to end the threat of thermonuclear war. There are no partial solutions. The new paradigm is both feasible and necessary, and every citizen has the weight of the future on his or her shoulders.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Breaks the Rules in Reuters Interview

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—President Trump granted an interview to Reuters yesterday. Although they did not print a transcript, among the quotes provided are a few statements which “break all the rules” of the Anglo-American establishment.

For instance, asked if he supports “the independence of the Federal Reserve,” the bedrock of London’s policy of keeping the U.S. government under the power of the private banks, Trump responded: “I believe in the Fed doing what’s good for the country.” He also directly criticized the new Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (very naughty—must respect the independence of the Fed!) for raising interest rates: “I’m not thrilled with his raising of interest rates…, we’re negotiating very powerfully and strongly with other nations. We’re going to win. But during this period of time, I should be given some help by the Fed.”

On the war in Afghanistan, Trump denounced all the Bush and Obama wars: “I’m constantly reviewing Afghanistan and the whole Middle East. We never should have been in the Middle East. It was the single greatest mistake in the history of our country.”

Asked if he had thought about lifting sanctions on Russia: “I would consider it if they do something that would be good for us…. I wouldn’t consider it, even for a moment, unless something was go—we have a lot of things in common. We have a lot of things we can do good for each other. You have Syria. You have Ukraine. You have many other things. I think they would like economic development. And that’s a big thing for them.”

He said it is “most likely” that he would have another meeting with Kim Jong-un, and that, “I have a good relationship with him. I like him. A lot of people will say: How could you possibly like him? I get along with him very well; we have a good chemistry. I have a good chemistry with Putin, too.”

Asked if China was manipulating its currency, he said they were, but: “I think the euro is being manipulated also.”

And in regard to Facebook, Twitter and the other social media sites as “self-regulating” (i.e., being hit men for the war party against Trump and Russia), Trump responded: “I think it’s a very dangerous thing when they are their own regulator in terms of who’s going to be on Facebook and who’s going to be on Twitter. I think that whether it’s conservative or liberal, I think that it’s very dangerous.”

Wall Street Journal Threats Against China and Pakistan Reveal Their Own Fear

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—A Wall Street Journal editorial today is trying to hold back the tide, threatening horrible punishment of Pakistan if fails to break from China and the Belt and Road Initiative. The new Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, inaugurated Aug. 18, campaigned with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a central feature of his program for the nation. Now, warns the Journal, he must “choose whether to dial back a Chinese-financed development program or increase the country’s reliance on Beijing.”

In the past, the dependence of nations like Pakistan on the IMF to save it from defaulting on its debts (debts which were artificially escalated through London’s control of currency fluctuations and raw material prices) was enough to dictate policies—both domestic policies and foreign policies—upon the subject nations. But the IMF is no longer the only game in town, despite the Journal’s effort to insist that it is.

“Normally Pakistan would go to the IMF for a loan,” writes the Journal, “as it has more than a dozen times. But the Chinese debt is an obstacle. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned last month, ‘There’s no rationale for IMF tax dollars’ to ‘bail out Chinese bondholders or China itself.” The U.S. and IMF want Pakistan to reveal the secret terms of China’s loans before deciding how to proceed. Once those terms are revealed, the IMF will likely ask Islamabad to renegotiate some China projects and put others on hold.”

The Journal’s real fear is not hidden as it issues its threats—that Pakistan, and others, will no longer accept austerity under the threat of being cut off from credit. “Even if Mr. Khan borrows enough from China and other sources to forestall a crisis,” they write, “investor confidence is unlikely to return without the IMF’s imprimatur…. Mr. Khan may resent demands for transparency. But the evidence suggests that many of the China projects were poorly conceived and the debt to build them will damage Pakistan’s finances for a generation.” This lie no longer holds the weight of the old IMF dictatorship over world credit.

Senate Intelligence Chairman Burr Exposes Brennan as Either a Liar or a Criminal

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Sen. Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has responded to former CIA Director John Brennan’s crazy rant in the New York Times on Aug. 16 (“President Trump’s Claims of No Collusion Are Hogwash”) by calling his bluff. As reported by William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal, Senator Burr responded: “If Director Brennan’s statement is based on intelligence he received while still leading the CIA, why didn’t he include it in the Intelligence Community Assessment released in 2017? If his statement is based on intelligence he has seen since leaving office, it constitutes an intelligence breach. If he has some other personal knowledge of or evidence of collusion, it should be disclosed to the Special Counsel, not the New York Times.”

Brennan’s calling President Donald Trump “treasonous” for meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin has caused a backlash among the Bush and Obama intelligence community, who otherwise despise Trump, but believe Brennan’s outbursts are discrediting their support for the British Empire coup attempt. Even Brennan’s pal former DNI James Clapper complained that “John and his rhetoric have become an issue in and of itself.” (Note: President Trump joked in a tweet: “Even James Clapper has admonished John Brennan for having gone totally off the rails. Maybe Clapper is being nice to me so he doesn’t lose his Security Clearance for lying to Congress!”)

McGurn also notes that Brennan’s threat to sue Trump for removing his security clearance would provide Trump a field day in discovery of Brennan’s many, many crimes. McGurn concludes that Brennan fails to realize that “the unhinged and highly politicized attacks he’s been directing at Donald Trump after stepping down as CIA director may inadvertently be helping to advance the case that he was equally politicized while on the job.”

Foreign Secretary Is the Latest Brit To Cross the Atlantic To Beef Up ‘Special Relationship’

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Two weeks ago it was Her Majesty’s Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson who came to Washington to deliver orders and threats. Now it is the turn of her Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was offered today a pulpit at the misnamed U.S. Institute of Peace to rail against Russia and demand the United States live up to Teddy Roosevelt’s policy and stick firmly to the odious U.S. special relationship with the Queen. The two talked tough, but these two are quite unimpressive twits.

At the USIP, Hunt singled out Russia as the number-one challenge to “the established rules of international conduct,” reciting the British Empire litany of Russia’s “aggressive and malign behavior” as seen with the unproven alleged Skripal poisoning and alleged Syrian chemical weapons stashes, equally unproven. “And today the United Kingdom asks its allies to go further by calling on the European Union to ensure its sanctions against Russia are comprehensive, and that we truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the U.S. That means calling out and responding to transgressions with one voice wherever and whenever they occur, from the streets of Salisbury to the heart of Crimea,” he intoned.

The second “challenge” to the old order singled out by the Foreign and Colonial Office’s Hunt in his otherwise underwhelming speech, was “the changing East-West balance of power.” By that he meant the development of China and India, which together “by 2050 … are projected to account for a greater share of global GDP than the G7.”

Russian Foreign Secretary Sergey Lavrov took due note of who was delivering ultimatums to whom. “Our British counterparts have pretty high self-esteem,” Lavrov commented today on Hunt’s remarks, TASS reported.  “The country, which is leaving the EU as part of Brexit, is trying to dictate foreign policy to the EU, and now it turns out that London wants to dictate foreign policy with regard to Russia to Washington as well.”

It appears Hunt will be hanging around the United States for a few days. He reported in his speech that he will be meeting with Henry Kissinger in New York “in a couple of days.” No meeting with the U.S. President has been mooted, but Vice President Mike Pence was ever-ready to invite him in. The Foreign Office and the State Department issued very similar tweets today after Hunt had a “really positive first meeting with VP Mike Pence discussing the strength of U.S.:U.K. alliance, and the international relationships which protect the values our two countries share.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

UN, EU, U.S. Refuse Economic Reconstruction Assistance to Syria Now

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—The United Nations, the European Union, and the United States are now on the record as refusing to provide any economic assistance for Syrian reconstruction, even as Syrians return in increasing numbers, and reconstruction is underway in Syria’s industrial capital Aleppo and elsewhere.

On Aug. 20 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told visiting Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil, “The political department of the UN Secretariat disseminated a secret directive” in October 2017 “prohibiting organizations from participating in this system to take part in any projects to restore the Syrian economy. Only humanitarian assistance, nothing more,” Lavrov reported.

Lavrov also said that “The United States is trying to artificially slow down the process of the refugees’ return by refusing to participate in the restoration of infrastructure in Syria. A few days ago, Washington hosted a meeting between [UN Special Envoy for Syria] Staffan de Mistura and [U.S. Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, and the State Department used the phrase ‘it is premature to even discuss the restoration of Syria’ in the statement following their talks,” Lavrov said at the joint press conference with Bassil after their meeting yesterday, Sputnik reported.

Lyndon LaRouche’s Executive Intelligence Review immediately queried the UN spokesman for its Political Secretariat by email, “Did the political department of the UN Secretariat really publish and disseminate a secret directive in October 2017 prohibiting organizations from taking part in any projects to restore the economy”? and specify, “Only humanitarian assistance, nothing more.”

Eri Kaneko, UN Associate Spokesman for the Secretary General, responded to EIR at 8:00 p.m. by email: “There was no ‘secret directive’ issued by the Department of Political Affairs or any other UN entity. There are internal UN policies and guidelines formulated through consultative processes shared within the UN system to ensure support and assistance is provided to those in need in all areas of Syria…. A durable solution to the conflict in Syria can only be achieved on the basis of the political process and the UN continues its efforts to advance the political process….” He might have added, “In the direction the British Empire prefers.”

This intent to block Syria’s economic recovery was shown again by Acting Assistant Secretary of State, Near Eastern Bureau David Satterfield, who said at a special briefing Aug. 17: “We have been very clear, as clear as it is possible to be, with the government of Russia that there will be no international reconstruction assistance for Syria without the irreversible political process validated by the UN.”

European Commission Vice-President and EU foreign policy representative Federica Mogherini replied on Aug. 14 to an EU Parliament question, that the “The European Commission did not engage in reconstruction efforts in Syria.

“In the conclusions adopted by the Foreign Affairs Council on 16 April 2018, the EU reiterated that it will be ready to assist in the reconstruction of Syria only when a comprehensive, genuine and inclusive political transition, negotiated by the Syrian parties in the conflict, on the basis of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 2254 (2015) and the 2012 Geneva Communiqué, is firmly under way….”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Italian Government Ministers Heading to China on Strategic Mission, for ‘Intense Relationships’

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—From Aug. 27 to Sept. 2, an Italian government delegation led by Economy [Treasury] Minister Giovanni Tria and Economic Development Undersecretary Michele Geraci—both fluent in Chinese—will visit China to launch concrete Belt and Road cooperation. Whereas Tria will seek help to defend Italy’s sovereign debt, Geraci will discuss investments in Italian infrastructure. Tria’s choice of China as his first trip abroad has already freaked out pro-EU circles, which melt down over such a “breach of tradition,” as usually newly elected government officials will travel first to Brussels, Berlin and/or Paris.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Geraci said: “We want to give China the idea that it is the Italian government, not just some individuals, to open a new road of intense relationships. We will seek investors who could replace the European Central Bank when the purchases of [Treasury notes] BTPs by the ECB will end, at the end of the year. And we want to find occasions of joint businesses.

“China is looking for alternative [financial] investments…. The fact that Italian bonds are higher yields than others is, paradoxically, something that makes them attractive. But in our trip we want to have a systemic approach. [Treasury Minister] Tria will deal more with bonds. I will concentrate on other kinds of cooperation, from the Chinese projects on the Silk Road, to Africa, from immigration to investments in Italy.”

When the interviewer raises the usual concerns against Chinese investments, Geraci replies: “If the Chinese invest in infrastructure or transportation, I do not see problems. On the contrary. If they build one dock more in an Italian port, they are welcome to. The same goes for the airlines: If they buy a minority share in Alitalia, I do not see a problem. In general, we are not in good shape as concerns infrastructure, and they can make a positive contribution. On infrastructure and transport, China is today the country that knows more.”

China is interested in a port in the northern Adriatic Sea “to reach Europe with its goods: As far north as possible, because it is cheaper to move cargo by sea than over land. Trieste would be the best solution: Chinese investments to enlarge its capacity, including the logistics. The position of Trieste is optimal: not so much because it is in Italy, but because it is on the border, it has connectivity with Eastern and Northern Europe.”

And again, responding to fears of “Chinese expansionism”: “These fears are coming from Northern Europe. Nobody in Greece is complaining, because the Chinese have enlarged Piraeus.”

And on the so-called “debt trap”:  “I don’t believe that Italy could fall into the so-called debt trap. It depends not on the lender but from the country that receives the investment. Italy has many resources and I think that the Rome-Beijing relationship could be a good partnership. They intervene in one country at a time, in Europe. We have the possibility to be on the forward line in this relationship and we can aim at a privileged relationship.”

Earlier, Corriere had reported that “the Chinese government aims at involving Rome in its Belt and Road Initiative, the infrastructure project along the global trade routes of the Chinese superpower. They are interested in the southern ports and in Trieste as terminals for cargo ships coming from southern China, through the Indian Ocean and Suez.”

Italy Creates ‘Task Force China,’ Seeks European Leadership in Belt and Road Initiative

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—In a press release last week, the Italian Ministry for Economic Development (Industry, Trade, Fishery etc.) announced the creation of a “Task Force China” under the direction of Undersecretary of State Michele Geraci.

The release, which has also been posted in English, says in part: “Among the Task Force’s main objectives are that of strengthening the relationship between China and Italy (in the fields of trade, finance, investment, R&D and co-operation in third countries), and that of guaranteeing Italy a position of leadership in Europe vis-à-vis China’s Belt and Road and Made in China 2025 initiatives.”

In a long Appendix, the Ministry states: “Helping Italian companies to participate to Chinese investment programs, financed by the Belt and Road Initiative both in China and along the entire route of the New Silk Road, at the same time stimulating investments and transfer of Chinese know-how to develop infrastructure, energy and transport networks in Italy. With 25,000 km of high-speed trains already built and 21,000 km more planned, to just mention one of the many possible examples, China is currently the country that more than anyone else in the world has the best knowledge in the sector of infrastructural development.”

Another point in the Appendix states: “China can help Italy to solve the immigration problem by helping Africa: China is the country that has invested the most in Africa (already $340 billion, many more than the just $70 billions normally estimated by analysts), with effects that are already visible in terms of impact on poverty rates and which in the long term should gradually help diminishing migration flows towards Europe. China’s involvement in Africa offers Italy a historic opportunity of international cooperation for the socio-economic of stabilization of the continent, crucial not only for a sustainable and solidarity solution of the immigration problem, but also for the economic opportunities that will arise in the continent for Italian firms.”

Genoa Bridge Collapse Might Compel Italy To Violate Maastricht’s 3% Rule

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Giancarlo Giorgetti, undersecretary to the Prime Minister’s Office, said yesterday in an interview, that he does not exclude that Italy may violate the EU rule that Eurozone countries must maintain a budget deficit below 3% of GDP, as per the Maastricht Treaty. Currently, the EU wants Italy to stay under 1%.

“I believe that this new event,” referring to Morandi bridge collapse, “which has given a shock to the whole Italian political class and to the public” must be taken into consideration, Giorgetti said. “A large plan of investments in public works is necessary. These are capital expenses which, I hope, are judged by the EU Commission in a different way from the past. The country needs an operation to be fit again. The negotiation with the EU will be difficult, we know, but we want to do it because we believe we are right.”

El Salvador Prepares To Go with Belt and Road, Recognizes People’s Republic of China

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—El Salvador’s President Salvador Sanchez Ceren told a national TV audience last night that El Salvador had broken diplomatic relations with Taiwan and established relations with the People’s Republic of China, in order to fulfill the government’s promise to secure a dignified life for all citizens, and create a future for new generations. He reported that a delegation of three high-level officials, led by Foreign Minister Carlos Castaneda, were in Beijing, and had just signed a Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations with China.

The President did not mention the Belt and Road Initiative in his speech, but Panama’s eager participation in the BRI, after its decision to break with Taiwan in June 2017, has sparked discussion throughout Central America on prospects for increased integration and actually crushing poverty, drugs and violence. In point of fact, El Salvador’s move in the direction of the BRI is the single most important action it could have taken to stop the scourge of drugs and Satanic gang violence which, along with Wall Street looting, has driven over 20% of 1st generation Salvadorans to emigrate desperately to the U.S.

El Salvador has been looking for some time for international assistance to relaunch its container port at La Union in the Gulf of Fonseca on the Pacific, and China has expressed interest in the project. The initial concept for the La Union port was to turn the Gulf into a development hub with Nicaragua and Honduras, which also border the Gulf, and to connect it to the Caribbean through a railroad across Honduras. At the same time, the high-speed railroad in Panama which China has agreed to build has sparked active discussion in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Honduras, minimally, of building a regional railroad, EIR has learned.

El Salvador’s decision increases the potential for other Central American countries—Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, in particular—to also leave the “Taiwan Gap” and enter the future. President Sanchez Ceren had met with the Presidents of Honduras and Guatemala earlier in the day, on the occasion of his nation joining the Customs Union which those two nations had created, bringing the 32 million people in those three countries—73% of all of Central America’s population—closer together.

“I am speaking to you on this occasion to make public a decision which will have a profound impact on the present and future development of our country,” President Sanchez told the nation. When he was inaugurated, he explained, he promised to create the conditions needed to transform the nation towards securing a decent life for each one and their families, and after analyzing the domestic and foreign situation, we have made the decision to break relations with Taiwan and establish relations with the P.R.C., he explained.

This is a decision which will bring “great benefits to the country and offer extraordinary opportunities on the personal level to each of you. The People’s Republic of China is the second economy in the world, in continuous development, and whose development achievements in diverse fields has enabled it to position itself among the most successful countries,” he said, citing China’s promotion of “shared development … in countries such as ours through South-South cooperation.”

Sanchez reported that dialogue will immediately begin between the two countries to identify “potentials and concrete actions in the areas of trade, investment, infrastructure development, scientific, economic and technical cooperation, in health care, education, tourism, and support for micro and medium-sized companies,” as well as coordinating immediate humanitarian aid for Salvadoran farmers affected by drought.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

China Brings Ultra-High Voltage Technology to Brazil’s Electrical Grid

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—The ultra-high voltage (UHV) cable lines China’s State Grid company and local Brazilian companies such as Tractebel are now putting up to transmit electricity from the huge Belo Monte dam on the Brazilian-Bolivian border in the Amazon region down to power-short southeastern city of Rio de Janeiro, is a great step forward for the Belt and Road Initiative in Ibero-America, the Portuguese-language edition of People’s Daily reported yesterday.

The transmission lines, which will provide power to Rio de Janeiro and vicinity, are the second phase of the Belo Monte project which radical environmentalists did everything in their power to stop.

China’s Ambassador to Brazil Li Jinzhang told People’s Daily that China’s UHV technology is “a calling card of ‘Made in China’…. This is the first time that China applies UHV technology abroad. Its construction inaugurates a new historic stage, which marks the recognition by other countries of UHV technology and other technologies created in China. Through the Belo Monte project, Brazil’s government, businesses and local population expressed the will and interest in deepening mutually beneficial cooperation which is advantageous to all.”

Former U.S. Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu has called China’s development of UHV technology a “Sputnik moment” for the U.S., the Financial Times reported on June 6, 2018. “China has the best transmission lines in terms of the highest voltage and lowest loss. They can transmit electricity over 2,000 km and lose only 7% of the energy. If we transmitted over 200 km we would lose more than that,” Chu stated.

Space Explorers Form ‘Bonds’ Above Politics, Stress U.S. and Canadian Astronauts

Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Astronauts are above the political fray, says Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, who will fly on a Soyuz rocket to the ISS in December. In comments made last week when Canadian media were invited to observe some crew training exercises, regarding the political tensions with Russia, he said, “I like to view myself that I am standing on a bridge above all the unrest and tensions.” He continued, “You have to acknowledge politics—it exists. It is a reality and we don’t dismiss it, but we are fortunate, [as] cosmonauts and astronauts, that we are part of one of those few ‘strings’ that still exist between nations.”

In the Soyuz capsule with Saint-Jacques on his flight to the ISS will be cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and astronaut Anne McClain. Saint-Jacques will be responsible for relaying key information to Russian mission control, speaking in Russian.

McClain told CBC that there is no room for politics when you’re working together for months in space. Among crew, there’s “an instant bond,” she said. Saint-Jacques adds, “It’s our professional pride as space explorers that we daily demonstrate that we can work together.”