EDITORIAL
A New Opportunity Before Us
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—In an extraordinary and inspiring discussion with the LaRouche PAC Policy Committee on Feb. 6, EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche showed that President Trump’s Feb. 10-11 summit with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe opens the door to the United States to join the “new agreement among nations,” which includes the ongoing Russian-Japanese agreements, the China-led Belt and Road Initiative, and the other related revolutionary new features of the 21st Century world.
The first article in the just-published Feb. 10 Executive Intelligence Review, titled “Therefore Choose Life,” summarizes that Feb. 6 discussion. Here, we will only point to some of the leading, newly-breaking developments which highlight this historic opportunity, one which Mr. LaRouche noted will be available only for a limited time—unless it is seized now through his “Four New Laws” of June 2014.
Prime Minister Abe is reportedly coming to Washington with an offer of high-technology investments, including high-speed rail, which will create 700,000 American jobs. He is also expected to offer cooperative research in high-technology areas including advanced nuclear power generation. Otherwise, the new feature of Abe’s Washington mission which was reported today by Nikkei Asian Review, is that Abe will propose formation of a permanent U.S.-Japan economic council, to be led on the Japanese side by Finance Minister Taro Aso, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, and for the U.S. by Vice-President Mike Pence.
As Prime Minister Abe arrived at Andrews Air Force Base Thursday evening, The Mainichi reported, “Abe will seek to discuss with Trump ways to bolster bilateral trade and investment for the economic benefit of the wider Asia-Pacific region … according to Japanese authorities.”
On Feb. 6, Lyndon LaRouche had subsumed this entire initiative of Abe’s towards the U.S., within the context of Japan’s new agreements with Russia for major economic cooperation leading towards a peace treaty. On that Japan-Russia side, The Mainichi reported yesterday that Feb. 7 was “Northern Territories Day” in Japan, when every year, the Japanese expelled from those islands by the Soviets in 1945, and their descendants, rally for the islands’ return to Japan. But this time, Prime Minister Abe addressed them on his “new approach,” which is “aimed at strengthening mutual trust through joint projects and lead to the conclusion of a peace treaty.” Opinion polls conducted shortly after the December summit of Abe with President Putin in Japan, showed that about 60% of the Japanese public supported this “new approach.”
Sputnik reported that on the same day, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida convened the first meeting of an inter-ministerial council of the Japanese government, on cooperation with Russia on the Kuril Islands (or Northern Territories). “I would like to ask all interested ministries to start consideration of joint economic projects with Russia, including in fishery, tourism, healthcare and environment protection,” Kishida said. “These projects should be economically advantageous for both Japan and Russia.” Lyndon LaRouche particularly underscored this last point, “economically advantageous for both,” earlier today.
It is further reported that Prime Minister Abe will travel to Russia twice this year, and hold summit meetings with President Vladimir Putin during both trips. The first trip will be at a date to be determined in the first half of 2017, and the second will be to Vladivostok for the East Economic Forum in September.
On the U.S.-China side, President Trump sent a letter Wednesday to China’s President Xi Jinping. The text has not been released, but both sides said that it thanked President Xi for his congratulatory message on Donald Trump’s inauguration, conveyed wishes to the Chinese people for the Feb. 11 Lantern Festival and the Year of the Rooster, and said President Trump looks forward to developing a “constructive relationship” with China. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that “China attaches great importance to developing the relationship with the United States.” China and the United States both have a responsibility to safeguard world peace and stability, and promote global development and prosperity. “Cooperation is the only right choice for China and the United States.”
On the U.S.-Russia side, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova confirmed today that Russia and the U.S. are working on the possibility of a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, on the sidelines of the Feb. 16-17 G20 foreign ministerial meeting in Bonn.
Yesterday, Minister Lavrov made remarks on the occasion of the Foreign Ministry’s release of Soviet foreign policy documents of 1943. In the course of a most moving evocation of that pivotal year of the war, he said:
“Even though the allies pursued their own interests, they were able to rise above divisions and differences and join forces in the name of defeating the Nazi ideology. This can be clearly seen from the documents on the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers in October 1943 and the Tehran Big Three conference in November-December 1943. During these events, the participants discussed critical issues related to, among other things, the post-war world order and the establishment of the UN. Today, as the international community is faced with an unprecedented surge in international terrorism and extremism, the experience of alliance and cooperation to address common tasks is particularly important.”
NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Lavrov Evokes World War II Allied Alliance as Model for War on Terror
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has evoked the World War II Allied alliances as a model for the fight against terror. Addressing the launch of the 26th volume of the Foreign Ministry’s Soviet Documents on Foreign Policy series, Lavrov noted that, “The year 1943 marked a change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and World War II in general. That year, the battle of Stalingrad was won, the siege of Leningrad was broken, the fascist troops faced an overwhelming defeat in the Battle of Kursk. All of this had a deep impact on the military and political situation.”
“Although the anti-Hitler coalition members all had their own interests, they succeeded in leaving tensions and disagreements behind and pooling their efforts in order to defeat the inhuman ideology of fascism,” Lavrov said. “Today, when the world community is facing the threats of terrorism and extremism, the experience that the allied countries gained during World War II could help us achieve our common goals.”
According to TASS, this new volume contains documents reflecting the radical turn in the course of World War II and Soviet diplomats’ activities that strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition and boosted cooperation among the Allied countries. The volume also includes correspondence among the heads of state and government and the foreign ministers, as well as some secret messages declassified for the first time.
Chinese Diplomat Confirms Putin’s Participation in Belt and Road Forum in May
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin will participate in the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation scheduled to be held in Beijing on May 14-15, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said in his regular briefing today. While commenting on a statement made by Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov confirming that Putin would attend, Lu Kang said that “we are now making preparations, and rather successfully…. When the work is done, we will announce the results.”
“We are ready to strengthen our relations with Russia in order to ensure prosperity on a regional and global level,” Lu said. “Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov has already announced the agenda; we will publish new information in due course.”
Denisov said earlier at a press conference that Vladimir Putin would participate in the Silk Road Forum during his working visit to China.
“After receiving an invitation from Xi Jinping, the Russian President immediately confirmed his readiness to make a visit to China and take part in the forum. He plans to participate in discussions during the forum and also hold bilateral talks with President Xi Jinping,” the Russian ambassador elaborated.
President Xi plans to visit Moscow, Denisov also confirmed Thursday, apparently after Putin’s visit to China. “Xi Jinping’s visit will take place in midyear,” he said, and that top-level contacts between the two countries have intensified in recent years. Lu also backed up Denisov’s remarks in his press briefing today.
Japan and Russia Advance on Joint Kuril Island Projects
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—Official consultations between Russia and Japan on joint economic projects on the Southern Kuril Islands are scheduled for March 14.
“It is planned that in the course of the upcoming talks a package of projects that could be implemented in the near future will be coordinated,” said Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Third Asian Department Lyudmila Vorobyova. This would be part of the implementation of the agreement on joint economic activities on the Southern Kuril Islands reached during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Japan Dec. 15-16, 2016.
In a visit to Russia on Feb. 7, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tokyo was considering and defining aspects of joint economic activities with Russia on the islands, in fishing, tourism, healthcare, the environment, and other areas.
Vorobyova said that Russian government agencies and the Sakhalin Region administration are working on developing “proposals concerning the most promising areas in terms of socio-economic development in the Southern Kurils. These are primarily fish breeding, fish processing, infrastructure improvement, geothermal energy, tourism, medicine.”
U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL
President Trump Wishes President Xi a Happy Year of the Rooster
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—The White House announced yesterday that President Trump had sent a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping thanking him for his congratulatory letter to President Trump on the occasion of Trump’s inauguration.
In his letter to the Chinese President, President Trump wished the Chinese people a happy Lantern Festival and prosperous Year of the Rooster. He also said that he looked forward to working with Xi in order to develop a constructive relationship that benefits both the United States and China. The Lantern Festival, which falls on Feb. 11 this year, is held to mark the first full Moon of the new lunar year. It falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month. Chinese people consider it to be one of the country’s most important holidays.
Speaking to the media after receipt of the letter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said. “The Chinese side has received the letter from President Trump to President Xi Jinping. We highly commend President Trump for his festive greetings to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people,” Lu Kang said. “China also attaches great importance to the U.S.-China bilateral relationship. As President Xi has pointed out, China and the U.S. shoulder special and important responsibilities and share extensive common interests in safeguarding world peace and stability and promoting global growth and prosperity.”
“So cooperation is the only right option for China and the United States,” Lu Kang said. “China will work with the United States on the principle of non-confrontation, mutual respect and win-win cooperation, to expand cooperation and to handle properly our differences, and to strive for greater achievements in our bilateral relations by ensuring its healthy and sound growth.”
‘We Don’t Have One Fast Train,’ President Trump Tells Airline Executives
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—Sparing no words about the pathetic state of America’s railroads, in his meeting today with airline executives that included CEOs of Delta Airlines, United, Southwest, and JetBlue, President Trump stated flatly: “You go to China, you go to Japan, they have fast trains all over the place. I don’t want to compete with your business, but we don’t have one fast train,” reported Washington’s The Hill today.
Trump, who has made the rebuilding and modernizing of America’s decrepit infrastructure one of his administration’s top priorities, has long criticized the terrible state of U.S. infrastructure. As reported by Time magazine last March, when Trump was campaigning for the Republican Presidential nomination, he charged that “the American rail system is so dilapidated, while China’s is now slicker than ever. They have trains that go 300 miles per hour. We have trains that go chug … chug … chug.”
During his talks with the airlines’ top officials at the White House today, Trump was equally critical of America’s aviation infrastructure. Commenting on the outdated air traffic control system, he remarked that, “I hear we’re spending billions and billions of dollars; it’s a system that’s totally out of whack,” U.S. News & World Report reported. Taking another swipe, Trump told the executives: “It’s the same thing with our airports. Our airports used to be the best. Now they’re at the bottom rung.”
Prime Minister Abe To Propose Win-Win Approach to U.S.-Japanese Relations
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will arrive in Washington with a full plan for improving relations between the U.S. and Japan when he meets President Donald Trump today. The plan includes a proposal for new cabinet-level U.S.-Japan talks on trade, security, and macroeconomic issues, including currencies.
“In a situation in which security relations in the Asia-Pacific region are increasingly severe, it is very important to demonstrate the unshakeable U.S.-Japan alliance at home and abroad,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.
“This is the most important theme of the U.S.-Japan leaders’ summit,” he said, and saying it was also vital to have constructive discussions on how to create a “win-win” relationship by further strengthening U.S.-Japan economic ties.
Abe, who will be accompanied by Finance Minister Taro Aso and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, will bring a package of steps Tokyo says could create 700,000 U.S. jobs through private-public investment in infrastructure such as high-speed trains, government sources say.
These cabinet-level talks would be headed by Finance Minister Aso, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, and deal with crafting trade policies and measures to bolster U.S. employment, according to a report in the Nikkei Asian Review.
Abe and Trump will also play a round of golf in Florida this weekend after the meeting at the White House on Feb. 10, and Trump said he will make sure the Japanese leader is his partner in the game, rather than a competitor.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Iran and Kazakhstan Create a Joint Business Entity To Strengthen the North-South Corridor
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—During the visit to Iran of Kanat Alpysbayev, head of the state-owned railway JSC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, the documentation on creation of a joint entity between KTZ Express (a branch of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy) and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) was signed on Feb. 6, the Kyrgyzstan-based AKIPress reported today.
This new entity’s immediate task will be construction of a joint terminal in Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, located on the Persian Gulf, and “developing transport and logistics infrastructure in order to arrange effective and profitable transport and logistics services between Kazakhstan, Iran, the CIS countries, and in the Caspian Sea ports along the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and other perspective routes,” Kazakhstan’s KazWorld.info reported Feb. 7.
Also, speaking in Tehran Feb. 6 at the meeting of heads of railway administrations of the Economic Cooperation Organization of Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, Arman Sultanov, Vice President of development of JSC NC “KTZ,” noted the “importance of the new railway line connecting Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran, in the development of transport-transit potential of the countries of Central Asia and the Middle East,” KTZ’s website railways.kz reported. (JSC NC “KTZ” is a Joint Stock Company that carries out activities such as acting as an operator for mainline railway networks, and transportation of passengers and goods by rail.) This new railway corridor of the INSTC, that travels along the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, has provided the optimum transportation routes for cargo flows from Russia, China and the Asia-Pacific region to the Gulf countries, Sultanov noted in his speech.
OTHER
South Africa’s Zuma Flanks Regime-Change Operation in His State of the Nation Address
Feb. 9 (EIRNS)—South African President Jacob Zuma was ready for them today—the British-inspired wreckers run by George Soros, Barack Obama, and others. In delivering his State of the Nation Address to a joint sitting of the two houses of Parliament in Cape Town, he placed emphasis on the necessity for economic liberation, not just political independence, by quoting African National Congress (ANC) hero Oliver Tambo.
The real news from the event was not so much Zuma’s text, but in the failure of the regime-change crowd “to gain traction,” as one reporter put it, while it exposed itself by its extremism. Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were allowed more than an hour of disruption, wild allegations, and insults in the House before being asked by the Speaker to leave. When they would not, and security arrived, the EFF used their fists. Allegedly, security used tear gas or pepper spray in the House and the EFF thugs were forced out.
Outside, major nastiness was avoided by a joint, advance deployment by police and the army. Meanwhile, the ruling ANC had organized a pro-Zuma event of its own nearby, which drew more than a thousand people, many more than those who had come with other intentions.
The Mail & Guardian, the leading daily for the wreckers, was forced to run an article that begins: “Planned protests outside the Parliament where President Jacob Zuma is delivering the State of the Nation address failed to gain traction, as more than a thousand people flocked to the Grand Parade where the ANC is holding its first ever people’s assembly.”
The BBC, meanwhile, has wild coverage magnifying the event, as if regime-change were on its way!
Although this is a preliminary report, what is clear is that Zuma’s opponents at the highest level are the self-same crowd that are aiming to overthrow U.S. President Donald Trump.
