EDITORIAL
The June Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit: Britain’s Looming Nightmare
April 24 (EIRNS)—China is deploying heavily to ensure that the upcoming June 9-10 summit in Qingdao of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) becomes another inflection point in the creation of a global New Paradigm, which will inter both British geopolitics and its mirror image, the bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system. Over the past couple of years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has succeeded in using the summits of the Belt and Road Initiative, the G20, and the BRICS to launch and consolidate major new conceptual initiatives for that New Paradigm, to London’s horror.
This will be the first meeting of the SCO with India and Pakistan as full members. The rift between those two countries has been a mainstay of British geopolitical manipulation and provocations for decades. Of even greater moment, British-cultivated tensions between India and China—including India’s unwillingness, to date, to join the BRI—received a major blow earlier this week with the announcement that President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India will hold an informal summit on April 27-28 in Wuhan, China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman commented optimistically about the “everlasting friendship” between the two giant nations, and stated that in light of the “obvious tendency for destabilization and uncertainty” internationally, the Xi-Modi summit “will chart the course, set new goals and break new ground for bilateral ties … [and] also contribute to regional peace and development.”
An op-ed on the summit by Fudan University Professor Zhang Jiadong in the April 23 Global Times, was strategically precise: “China and India still need strategic unity in order to reshape the old international political and economic order…. As the two longest standing civilized countries in human history, China and India … share a vision of the future and our historical responsibilities.”
These Asian developments, along with Japan’s stated intention to work closely with China on the Belt and Road, are dramatically shifting the entire world dynamic in the direction of the New Paradigm. As Helga Zepp-LaRouche today stated:
“The upcoming summit between Modi and Xi is potentially an absolute breakthrough. They are the two oldest civilizations, each 5,000 years old or more, and they represent 40% of the world’s population. And if they get together, and with the Japan realignment with China and with Russia—just look at the situation! It’s Asia which counts. And on the other side you have the absolutely impotent Old Paradigm, represented by Macron and Merkel, trying to convince Trump to be in the camp of their old world.
“It’s very clear: The battle is between the U.S. joining with them and the British Empire, or with Putin and Xi. And if the four most important nations—Russia, China, India and the U.S., i.e. Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Power conception—wins, then the world is on safe ground.”
Zepp-LaRouche went on to say that the world is entering a period of most dramatic changes over the next few months, an April-to-June period of global realignment. There is the discussed Trump-Putin meeting; the Trump talks with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un; the scheduled SCO summit; and more. Zepp-LaRouche addressed her fellow organizers in the LaRouche movement internationally:
“It is important when we are sitting in these Old Paradigm countries, that we don’t let ourselves be influenced by the environment, and that we don’t go with the ups and downs of daily media coverage, which is just psychological warfare against the mind of the population. We must situate ourselves in the New Paradigm, and take the moral and intellectual high ground.”
Take people out of the fears and the impotence they feel, Zepp-LaRouche said, and uplift them to the highest level, to the stage where real history is made. Show them that the world can be fixed—but only by functioning at the level of the sublime.
Lavrov Blasts EU Attitude against Syria’s Reconstruction
April 24 (EIRNS)—At the opening of the third annual conference on Syrian reconstruction in Brussels today, the sponsoring European Union proposed to raise $6 billion, with the understood condition that for any of this money to go to government-controlled areas, Assad must go.
The EU position on reconstruction in Syria, reports Reuters, is that rebuilding destroyed cities such as Aleppo cannot start until powers involved in the “proxy war” back a peaceful transition of power away from Bashar al Assad.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has blasted the Western approach to Syria. “Speaking on Syria’s restoration, we are very alarmed by the West’s loudly announced stance that they won’t provide any assistance to those areas which are under control of the Syrian government,” Lavrov said from Beijing, where he was attending the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Therefore, the Brussels conference is a litmus test. “We will see how the conference’s organizers, most notably the European Union, and other Western countries and participants will outline their stance on the pressing tasks of restoring Syria’s economy.”
In any case, the Western regime-change boycott has not stopped the rebuilding of Aleppo. The Irish Times reported in October 2017 that electricity was being restored; water was flowing into homes, businesses and factories; automobile traffic was heavy, and hotels were busy with conferences and visiting delegations. There is still much work to be done in Aleppo, but life has clearly returned to the city. This is in contrast to Raqqa, which still lies in ruins six months after U.S.-backed Kurdish-dominated militias “liberated” that city from ISIS.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russia To Host 9th Annual Meeting on Security Issues in Sochi
April 24 (EIRNS)—The 9th International Meeting of High Representatives for Security Issues will convene in Sochi, Russia on April 25, under the cloud of the “flagrant challenge” to the UN system by the U.S. and its allies, according to the conference’s Russian organizers. “Tensions in the world are mounting and more often a choice is made in favor of a military solution to resolve conflicts,” Alexander Venediktov, an aide to Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, told TASS. “Unfounded accusations of using chemical weapons or violating human rights have led to catastrophes in Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Libya.” These tensions and the war on terror will be discussed at the two-day Sochi security conference, Venediktov said. The conference’s two foremost issues will be: “Hotbeds of International Tensions: from Conflict to Dialogue”; and “The Evolution of International Terrorist Organizations Strategy and Tactics.”
Bilateral meetings are expected on the sidelines of the conference. Pakistani National Security Advisor Nasser Khan Janjua already met with Patrushev, in Moscow on April 23. They discussed “issues of bilateral military cooperation in information security and countering international terrorism,” TASS said. National Security Advisor to Iraqi Prime Minister Falih Alfayyadh arrived today, and met with Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov. The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani will address the conference on the security situation, Iran’s Mehr News reported.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced on April 23 that Guo Shengkun, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, will attend the conference in Sochi.
Lavrov Hopes Contacts with France Will Clarify Policy in Syria
April 24 (EIRNS)—In comments on the sidelines of the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Beijing, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov expressed hope that contacts with the French government will clarify France’s position on Syria, as well as that of the United States.
“The United States pledged that its only goal was to drive terrorists out of Syria and defeat the so-called Islamic State. However, despite its pledges and statements of President Trump, the U.S. has been actively settling on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, is not going to leave the area, and is creating local power structures there,” TASS quoted Lavrov.
Lavrov further stated that French President Emmanuel Macron is encouraging these steps. Macron “has already asked the United States not to withdraw their troops from Syria, even when the last terrorist will be eliminated; the French leader has stated that it is necessary to stay in Syria in a practically constant way and build a new Syria. It is an almost colonial position,” Lavrov said according to Interfax, reported ANSA.
“Certainly, this is an apparent meddling in domestic affairs and violation of all norms of international law and decency,” TASS quoted Lavrov. “I hope after contacts with the French colleagues we will make it clear how we will cooperate on the Syrian settlement to observe all rules and norms of international law and the United Nations Charter.”
Lavrov also said that on April 23, the Russian and French Presidents had a phone conversation “during which Vladimir Putin outlined our stance and confirmed readiness to coordinate positions with the French partners.”
Saudis Kill Yemen Houthi Leader, a Blow to Peace Negotiations
April 24 (EIRNS)—Saleh al-Samad, chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council and head of the Houthi Ansarullah Political Council, was killed in a precision air strike on his home by the Saudis on April 19. The hit was not only on al-Samad, himself, but on the peace process that the UN envoy to Yemen has been trying to relaunch, as al-Samad was reported to be very open and encouraging.
Now, the Saudis want the hardliners’ response, which is further escalation, and consequently a backlash against Iran. In a statement released on April 23, Yemen’s Defense Ministry vowed a “crushing response” to make Saudi Arabia and the U.S. regret their “criminal adventurism”; the Yemeni armed forces reserve their right to deal severe blows to “the aggressors and their evil coalition.”
Over the last week, the Saudis have escalated bombings of civilian targets: bombing a wedding party Sunday and reportedly killing 88, and today 18 killed at a gas station.
Hungary Blocks NATO Plans with Ukraine
April 24 (EIRNS)—The Hungarian government vetoed a planned session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission for the third time, as well as vetoing plans of the EU to deepen cooperation with Kiev, charging that the Kiev regime does not respect basic rights which are the foundation of the Western military alliance and the EU. Hungary also vetoed the invitation to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to the next NATO summit in July. Hungary’s complaints about repression of minority rights of the ethnic Hungarian community in Ukraine are shared by Romania, whose minority in Ukraine is suffering similar repression.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Third Round of Talks in Italian Government Crisis
April 24 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Italian State President Sergio Mattarella gave an exploratory mandate to Roberto Fico, president of the Chamber of Deputies and M5S member. The mandate is to explore the possibility of a government coalition between the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the Democratic Party (PD). Speculation is that if Fico fails, a technocratic solution becomes more likely.
The man for the technocratic government is ready: Carlo Cottarelli, a former IMF official, an expert in budget cutting, who had been hired by the governments of Enrico Letta and Matteo Renzi to make a “spending review” (Newspeak for budget cuts). But Cottarelli was fired when he came out with the proposal to lay off 60,000 state employees, which was too much even for Renzi.
Cottarelli’s name has been raised for both a “super-partes” government and for the job of Finance Minister in a M5S-Lega government, confirming reports of strong EU-ECB pressures on Italian institutions. His profile fits the ideology of the M5S leaders: The economic crisis is a product of “corruption.” It suffices to be “honest,” and the “immoral” debt-making process can be stopped and reversed. The Rome city administration led by the M5S is implementing this approach, reducing the debt but increasing potholes.
Cottarelli told Anglo-Italian journalist Maria Latella yesterday that “If Mattarella calls me, I will say yes.”
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
Transaqua Plan To Refill Lake Chad Is About To Become an Italo-Chinese Project
April 24 (EIRNS)—Speaking at a meeting with Italian industrialists and representatives of the Chad government April 17 in Rome, Italian Foreign Ministry special representative for Chad, Mauro Lorenzini, presented the Transaqua plan as an “Italo-Chinese Project” to save Lake Chad.
Transaqua envisions the transfer of 3,000 cubic meters of water per second from the Congo basin, Lorenzini said “and it is quite complicated, requiring years to complete. However, in China they actually realized a similar project” which could be considered the pre-feasibility study for Transaqua.
In an April 17 interview with the news agency DIRE, Lorenzini explained that “The project is no longer only an Italian one, but has become an Italo-Chinese project…. The Italian group, Bonifica, made an agreement with the Chinese to represent the project for Lake Chad at the last [Lake Chad Basin Commission] LCBC conference in Abuja,” Nigeria, on Feb. 26-28. The Italian government “wants to support the feasibility study…. We are helping Bonifica, because it could represent the solution to the very serious environmental crisis of Lake Chad. You know that Lake Chad, due to climate change, is reduced to really small dimensions and it represents survival for large populations in Chad, Niger, Cameroon [and Nigeria]—countries which are part of the basin. And therefore, [Transaqua] could represent the solution—over years, because it is a complex project, but it is the only existing project to save Lake Chad.”
Costa Rican President: We Play an Important Role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative
April 24 (EIRNS)—So stated Costa Rican President Luis Guillermo Solís in a Xinhua interview published yesterday, in which he emphasized how cooperation between China and his country will create opportunities to boost its development.
Costa Rica must make China a trading partner of top priority, he told Xinhua, speaking of the potential to “dramatically increase” Costa Rica’s exports to China. Solís called the November International Import Expo in Shanghai an “extraordinary” opportunity for countries around the world, of great importance for ties between Ibero-America and China, “a crucial occasion for reactivating international programs favoring trade.”
Solís also pointed to China’s role in building the route that connects Costa Rica’s capital, San José, to Puerto Limón on the Caribbean Sea, where Costa Rica has built a new container terminal. “Costa Rica can learn from China’s best practices in the building of ports, airports, highways and other infrastructure projects,” he said.
Solís’s successor, Carlos Alvarado Quesada, assumes the Presidency on May 8. He is from the same party as Solís, the Citizen’s Action Party, but he did not address this crucial matter in his campaign, focusing instead on gender issues.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Rand Paul Assured That a Secretary of State Pompeo Will Not Back Regime Change Wars
April 24 (EIRNS)—U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (KY) voted to support a Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommendation that Mike Pompeo be approved as Secretary of State, after pinning the nominee to support President Trump’s desire to end the policy of regime change, and exit the multiple wars the U.S. is now waging.
In a series of tweets yesterday afternoon, Senator Paul explained why he decided to vote for Pompeo’s nomination:
“I just finished speaking to @realDonaldTrump, after speaking to him several times today. I also met with and spoke to [CIA] Director Pompeo.
“After calling continuously for weeks for Director Pompeo to support President Trump’s belief that the Iraq war was a mistake, and that it is time to leave Afghanistan, today I received confirmation the Director Pompeo agrees with @realDonaldTrump.
“President Trump believes that Iraq was a mistake, that regime change has destabilized the region, and that we must end our involvement with Afghanistan.
“Having received assurances from President Trump and Director Pompeo that he agrees with the President on these important issues, I have decided to support his nomination to be our next Secretary of State.”
In an interview Tuesday on the Fox News broadcast “Mornings with Maria,” Paul also said that he had changed his mind because Pompeo had “promised” him that he will be very public in saying that he agrees with the President’s view of the world, and because of Pompeo’s involvement in discussions with North Korea, which the Senator supports. Fox anchor Maria Bartiromo tried to goad Senator Paul into telling President Trump that U.S. troops had to stay in Syria. You must agree that when Obama pulled U.S. troops out of Iraq, that created a vacuum and created ISIS? she asked aggressively. Paul replied: “No, when we attacked Saddam Hussein and toppled him, we created a vacuum and chaos there, and it has persisted to this day.”
Paul said he did not discuss with the President any date for pulling troops out of Syria, but he heard “loud and clear” from President Trump that he agrees that the U.S. has been at war too long, in too many places.
France’s Macron Tries To Sell London’s ‘Plan B’ in Washington
April 24 (EIRNS)—Both President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron spoke of their great friendship and long talk alone in the Oval Office at their joint press conference today; what they actually agreed on, beyond the importance of the April 13-14 early morning air strike on Syria, remains elusive.
In the face of President Trump’s insistence that he will pull U.S. troops out of Syria, the British sent in the young French President to try to leverage the joint U.S.-U.K.-French military strike in Syria into somehow shackling the U.S. President to a new variant of the British Empire’s endless geopolitical wars in the Middle East, playing to his “Iran is the enemy” profile to sell it.
Macron spoke of “humanitarian law” and against chemical weapons, but he concentrated on “four pillars” of a Middle East plan, targetting Iran, which he put on the table. The first three pillars relate to ensuring Iran’s nuclear program is ended permanently, and its ballistic missile capability eliminated. The key pillar is the fourth: Generate the conditions for containing Iran in the region (he specified Yemen, Syria, and Libya). The latter, he said, requires a long-term political settlement for Syria which ensures Syria does not fall under any “hegemony,” and that decisions about Syria’s political future will be worked out by Europe, the U.S., regional powers, even Russia and Turkey, as part of this regional package. Asked whether U.S. troops need to stay in Syria through a political transition, the French President answered that “we” (!) will assess such needs over coming months based on conditions on the ground.
Now the pundits will rush to parse President Trump’s remarks to determine his actual plans—a notoriously unreliable practice. He said that he and Macron agreed that we can’t leave the Mediterranean unsecured, and a very strong blockage is required against Iran getting to the Mediterranean. He further said, forcefully, that the “extremely rich” Middle East countries which the U.S. has been protecting for free—and you know who I mean, he stated—are going to have to pay for this and put their own soldiers on the ground to enforce it. The U.S. has gotten less than zero from the $7 trillion it spent over years in the Middle East, he said, yet when we want to build highways, tunnels, schools in the U.S., people say “Oh, we’ve got to be careful how we spend our money.” The President then restated that ISIS is pretty well wiped out in Iraq and Syria; that he does intend to pull out of Syria, and that we’ll be making “some big decisions” pretty soon.
An overall peace agreement is urgent in Southwest Asia. Actually workable ideas for securing it, however, such as uniting peoples around the development the New Silk Road would bring, could well emerge from the Trump-Putin summit.
Wieczorek Files To Be on Ballot in S.D. Congressional Race, Runs on LaRouche ‘Four Laws’
April 24 (EIRNS)—Ron Wieczorek, a South Dakota rancher from Davison County and longtime supporter of Lyndon LaRouche, filed petition signatures today with the Secretary of State in Pierre to be on the ballot in November as an Independent, in the election for the state’s at-large member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He has led an organizing campaign for several months, gathering nearly 4,000 signatures (of 2,700 needed) with the help of volunteers, and rallying people to get active. Last night, in a conference call, Wieczorek thanked everyone, saying, “I talked to thousands of people, maybe 3, 4, even 5,000 people in the last two months alone.” Organizing and petitioning, while running a farm, he said it’s been “different from being in town.” He had 20 inches of snow, and was in the middle of calving season. But, he reported, there is “a major improvement of the mindset of the South Dakota people.”
Flanked by campaign workers and family members, Wieczorek met with media in state capital of Pierre today, and issued the following excerpted statement:
“I have decided to run for U.S. Congress because I cannot sit idly by while our nation is destroyed….
“My program is based on Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Laws for Economic Recovery: Restore Glass-Steagall, return to a National Banking and credit system, like that utilized by Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt, use this credit for high-productivity-gain investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, and science-drivers, the development of fusion nuclear energy and a revival of our space program.
“To meet these objectives rapidly we should collaborate with China’s Belt and Road Initiative for economic development, a project using the ideas of what used to be called the American System of political economy and reflecting LaRouche’s Four Laws. China has pulled millions out of poverty and is dedicated to eradicating it entirely; our nation should undertake a mission to do the same. China’s idea is that the U.S. and China should cooperate in developing the economies of the entire world. This vision is the basis for the friendship between President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump….
“The President’s efforts to change the established order has been hampered by an outrageous coup attempt conducted by our elites, in conjunction with the British, to change the results of the 2016 election…. I am dedicated to ending that coup.
“The President has also been trapped by partisan politics. I choose to stand above the parties, and campaign and fight on principle. If the silent Americans who unexpectedly elected Trump, and want him to succeed, follow my stance and join me in campaigning on the principles of LaRouche’s Four Laws, we can actually cause the necessary changes in time to save our nation.”
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
China’s Space Day Features the Upcoming Chang’e-4 Mission to the Lunar Far Side
April 24 (EIRNS)—Today is China’s third annual Space Day, celebrated on the anniversary that China launched its first satellite in 1970. On the first national Space Day in 2016, President Xi Jinping explained that “Exploring the vast universe, developing space programs, and becoming an aerospace power has always been the dream we strive for.” The theme of Space Day this year is “Forging Together the New Era of Space Development.”
The media are highlighting the upcoming Chang’e-4 mission to the far side of the Moon, which will launch the relay satellite next month. Andrew Jones reports for GBTimes multimedia that the relay satellite, now named Queqiao, or “Magpie Bridge,” as announced today by the China National Space Administration, will launch on May 21. It will be in an orbit more than 60,000 km away from the lander and rover on the far side of the Moon, and nearly half a million kilometers from Earth. It will be in a gravitationally stable “halo” orbit, from where, it will be able to communicate with both the lunar spacecraft and the Earth. The lunar spacecraft, because it will be on the side of the Moon that never faces Earth, cannot talk directly to mission control.
The launcher of the relay satellite will take along two microsatellites, Longjiang-1 and 2, developed by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology. The lander and rover will launch approximately six months after the relay satellite, and will carry payloads contributed by Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden. This will be the first landing on the far side of the Moon.
The Queqiao relay satellite is named for the ancient myth of the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, who are separated by the Silver River (i.e., the Milky Way). They are reunited on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month when magpies join to form a bridge out of their wings for the star-crossed lovers.
