EDITORIAL
New Paradigm Moves Forward with ‘Singapore Model’: Dialogue, Not War
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—There have been more developments this past week which are advancing the New Paradigm of international relations, in the days following the July 25-27 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. These include new project initiatives, the opening and continuation of dialogue, and other events. At the same time, of course, there are hysterical reactions coming from the City of London and Wall Street and their aligned political circles.
In her weekly strategic webcast today, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche summarized this picture, beginning with the implications of the fact that the BRICS Summit had guest heads of state and government, from those 15 nations which represent the leading regional economic organizations of the “Global South,” mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, from Mercosur, to the African Union, to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
“One can really say that what is emerging there is very, very rapidly, a completely new economic order, a new system of governance based on win-win cooperation, on respect for the sovereignty of the other one, and this is really carrying on the New Silk Road Spirit, which is now capturing the majority of the nations, at least of the Southern Hemisphere and the developing sector,” she said. Further, “This is creating completely different conditions, so that many conflicts which seemed to be unresolvable, can now work in a peaceful direction.
“And I’ll give you just one example, with the new Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, who basically said that Pakistan will follow the Chinese model, but he also said that he wants rapprochement with India, and that for every step India makes in respect to Pakistan, he is willing to take two steps. So there is actually, for the first time, the possibility of resolving the India-Pakistan conflict. And it’s also the first time that the Russia military has had military maneuvers together with Pakistan.
“China obviously plays a big role in Pakistan. Russia has very good relations with India. And now in the new spirit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization—the SCO—and the BRICS Global South, as they call this new development, it makes it possible to resolve this conflict.”
There are several more important initiatives. In Syria, reconstruction is beginning in Aleppo Province. In the Horn of Africa, there is the rapprochement among Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. In Yemen, under terrible conditions of assault from the Saudi coalition, there has come the proposal from the Houthi leadership of a unilateral peace offer to the other side, for the sake of the Yemeni people, who are suffering the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet.
Zepp-LaRouche said, “I think that all of these developments are really absolutely fantastic, and they show that under the leadership of the BRICS, especially China, Russia, and India, and South Africa and Brazil, with it, there is an effort to replace the old, collapsed, geopolitical order with the new system of international relationships, which I think is very, very promising. And it’s too bad that our mainstream media in the West are so gleichgeschaltet, so absolutely controlled, that most people know absolutely nothing about these fantastic developments, because the media just don’t report it, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”
We must work to make known the reality of what is going on. For example, look at the importance of the meeting between President Donald Trump and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte this week. Zepp-LaRouche characterized it as “really historic, because Trump and Conte formed a new strategic partnership between the United States and Italy, especially to address the crisis in Libya, but also, Trump said he recognizes the Italian leadership role for the entire Mediterranean. And I think this is very good: They struck up an immediate friendship. Naturally, the German media were quite freaked out and they talked about that the ‘new axis’ now exists between Washington and Rome, against the Berlin-Paris ‘axis.’ And this is quite ridiculous, but it is one more step to show that the famous EU unity does not exist, and it will not exist, because the policies of the EU are such that they make enemies out of their own members. So, this Conte-Trump development is very positive.”
Summing up, Zepp-LaRouche said, “There is so much reason for hope. If you have now a peace process involving India, Pakistan, the Koreas, the Horn of Africa, and you have an absolute commitment for overcoming underdevelopment and poverty in the developing countries, this is just a reason for joy. And I think it is really the reality of the future, and not the hysteria which is created by many forces in the West.”
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Syria Has Begun the Reconstruction of Aleppo, Preparing for Migrants’ Return
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—The Syrian government has begun the reconstruction of Aleppo Province. “The three-stage state program includes, first, preparing the infrastructure … second, targeted help to every family, and third, bringing people back home by showing how safe it is here,” said Regional Deputy Provincial Gov. Hamid Kenno.
Sputnik reports that the priority is to return refugees as soon as possible. In July, the inter-agency coordination committee of the Russian Defense and Foreign Ministries developed procedures regulating the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland. The Russian military has created a refugee center in Syria to receive, relocate and accommodate civilians, who are returning home from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, more than 100,000 people have returned home since the beginning of the year.
Lavrov at ASEAN Events Invites Other Countries To Help Achieve ‘Greater Eurasia’ Project
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is now in Singapore to attend the East Asia Summit, the Russia-ASEAN Ministerial, and other meetings, told reporters that Russia invites all Eurasian countries to take part in the “Greater Eurasia” project, TASS reported today. “The Greater Eurasia project is more of a goal, and we invite all countries located on this vast geopolitical space to determine ways to achieve it,” he said.
Lavrov referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks to the Russia-ASEAN summit in Sochi in May 2016, where he called on the partners to look into the vast geopolitical and geo-economic picture of Eurasia, as complementing the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Lavrov pointed out that the European Union is located in the Eurasian space. “When we are talking about improving cooperation between the EAEU, SCO and ASEAN, we always stress that the doors are open for the European Union if it shows interest in it,” Lavrov emphasized. “And, to my mind, no one doubts that the EU should have interest in it, taking into account purely pragmatic economic and business interests.”
Further, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi “exchanged views on bilateral relations and cooperation within the framework of the ASEAN-centric mechanisms. The two ministers discussed the situation around the Korean Peninsula,” reported Moscow’s Foreign Ministry today.
Joint Event between Russia’s Baltic Fleet and Japanese Navy Mooted
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera held talks in St. Petersburg yesterday with Acting Commander of the Forces of Russia’s Western Military District, Lt. Gen. Viktor Astapov, TASS reports. Their discussion included defense cooperation and plans for joint events in which the Western Military District and ships of the Baltic Fleet would take part.
Before their talks, Onodera visited the main base of the Baltic Fleet in Kronstadt, a historic fortress on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland. “This was the first-ever visit to the place by a Japanese Defense Minister,” observed TASS. The Baltic Fleet is one of the five Russian fleets. The others are the Black Sea, Caspian, Northern, and Pacific Fleets.
On July 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had held consultations in the two-plus-two format with Onodera and Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
U.S. Sanctions Turkish Justice and Interior Ministers over Continued Detention of U.S. Pastor
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—The U.S. has imposed sanctions against Turkey’s Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül over the continued imprisonment of American pastor Andrew Brunson. The U.S. believes Brunson is in effect being held hostage. Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for 20 years, is accused of having links to the Pennsylvania-based Turkish Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen and his movement, dubbed by the government as the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ); and Brunson is further accused of launching an attempted coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in July 2016. Turkey has demanded Gülen’s arrest and extradition from the United States, but Turkish authorities have not presented the evidence necessary for an extradition proceeding.
Turkey has a similar conflict with Greece. The Turkish authorities have been holding to Greek soldiers for several months on charges of espionage, because they wandered a few meters into Turkish territory while patrolling the border to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into Greece. Turkey is demanding the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers who entered Greece after the 2016 coup, but a Greek court ruled against extradition.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Sen. Rand Paul To Head a U.S. Delegation to Moscow To Meet Senior Lawmakers
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) will arrive in Moscow on Aug. 6, leading a delegation that includes Texas State Sen. Don Huffines and president of the Cato Institute Peter Goettler, to meet Russian lawmakers, TASS reported today, citing Chairman of the Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Sen. Konstantin Kosachyov.
He said, “The meeting will take place on Aug. 6 at 11:00 Moscow time at the Federation Council,” the upper house of Russia’s bicameral Federal Assembly. The Russian side will be represented by Foreign Affairs Committee First Deputy Chairman and former Ambassador to the U.S., Sergei Kislyak; First Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dzhabarov; and Deputy Chairman Vladimir Lukin, who also headed the Russian diplomatic mission in Washington in the early 1990s.
Paul’s delegation will also meet with lawmakers from the State Duma, and with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. They are also planning to visit St. Petersburg.
Italian Media Report on Glass-Steagall, LaRouchePAC Rally Banner Welcoming Conte
MILAN, Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—While the Italian agency Vista posted the video of the LaRouchePAC banner welcoming Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte outside the White House on July 30, reading “Benvenuto Prime Minister Conte. Go Glass-Steagall!” an Italian blogger, Cristiano Puglisi, published an Aug. 1 article on Il Giornale’s blog, entitled “Banking Separation, Whatever Happened to It?”
His blog reports that Glass-Steagall is in the Conte government program of the Lega and Five Star Movement (M5S) coalition, and was also in the election program of President Trump. Although he doesn’t mention it, Glass-Steagall was also part of both the Democratic and Republican Party 2016 election platforms. “Adopted in 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act aimed at solving one of the causes of the Wall Street financial collapse of 1929, which created the Great Depression leading the world to the Second World War.” Puglisi continues, that its repeal in 1999 “was the cause for the financial collapse of 2008.” And now, despite the silence of the Italian government on the issue, “there are activists who are not giving up. For example, those of Movisol, the Italian branch of the Schiller Institute and the LaRouchePAC, connected to the American economist and politician Lyndon Hermyle LaRouche, Jr., a politician who goes very much against the tide and has been dealing with these problems for many years.
“The Italian branch of this movement, led by Liliana Gorini, is very active all over Italy and its mission is very clear.” He quotes Gorini at length on the economic causes of the threat of war, and the devastating effects of the EU austerity policy, “which aims only at saving big banks, and whose deadly effects can be clearly seen in Greece, with the recent wildfires.” Austerity cuts in the defense budget have cut back military manpower deployed to fighting wildfires, as reported elsewhere in this Alert.
Puglisi ends his article stating that thanks to the Movisol mobilization and activist Massimo Kolbe Massaron, a resolution for Glass-Steagall has been introduced in five Italian regions, and that 200 signatures of elected officials were collected to demand its reinstatement; these will be presented to the U.S. Congress in the coming months.
EU Sticks to Sanctions, as Boeing Cashes In on Russia’s Need for Cargo Aircraft
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Boeing has just signed a $12 billion deal to sell giant cargo planes to Russian Volga-Dnepr Group and its U.K.-based subsidiary CargoLogicHolding, to replace its aging fleet of Antonov aircraft. The deals, announced July 17 at the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow in Britain, includes an order for five Boeing 747-8 Freighters, worth $2 billion, and a letter of intent to acquire 29 Boeing 777 Freighters, worth $9.8 billion.
“This is a very significant day in our company’s history. With this package of agreements, we will grow our business with the unique and unmatched 747-8 Freighter and open new market opportunities with the 777 Freighter, the world’s longest-range twin-engine cargo jet,” said Alexey Isaykin, President of Volga-Dnepr Group and Chairman of CargoLogicHolding. “We will work with Boeing to develop new freighter solutions that will help us continue to serve the unique and fast-changing requirements of our global customers.”
“We are extremely honored that Volga-Dnepr Group and CargoLogicHolding have once again placed their trust in Boeing’s freighter family to carry their business into the future. We look forward to expanding our relationship with our great partners and delivering new freighters to them for many years to come,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Kevin McAllister.
The big losers in the deal are the Ukrainians and their ostensible allies from the European Union. The Boeing aircraft will replace the Russian company’s fleet of huge, but aging, Antonov An-124 Ruslan planes, which were built in Ukraine during the Soviet era. The Antonov complex was part of a cluster of high-tech enterprises in the aerospace and nuclear industries then based in Ukraine, and integrated with Russia’s high-tech sector. After the Soviet Union breakup, the company steadily declined as Ukraine’s relations with Russia declined. It had offered the European NATO countries its experimental large AN70 turboprop military transport, but the Europeans turned it down, and instead gave the contract to Airbus to develop an entirely new plane. Airbus had little experience with this type of aircraft, causing the program to suffer delays and large cost overruns. As for Antonov, it no longer exists as a major aircraft maker.
While Europe’s Airbus does not have a freighter that can compete with Boeing’s 747, EU sanctions against Russia have blocked the sale of other products to Russia.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
U.S. and Russia Suspend Sanctions in Order To Continue Space Cooperation
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Since 2011, NASA astronauts have ridden to the International Space Station aboard Russia’s Soyuz rockets, and all applicable sanctions have always been waived. Russian RD-180 engines for the Atlas V rocket, which carries payloads for NASA and the U.S. Air Force, have been delivered without interruption. The sale of the engines keeps American rockets flying and Russian space factories in business. When a new round of sanctions was levied against Russia, including against Russian figures with positions in defense and space, President Vladimir Putin signed the law on June 4, “On Measures of Influence [Counteraction] in Response to Unfriendly Actions of the United States of America and Other Foreign States,” allowing the government to take retaliatory measures. But so far, none has been proposed. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine pointed out last week, that more important than the practical matters of rocket engines and Soyuz rides, U.S.-Russian space cooperation “is our best opportunity to dialogue when everything else falls apart.”
Two days ago a major step forward was taken, when NASA and the U.S. Air Force certified Russia’s RD-180 rocket engines to be used for the first time on manned flights. They will be in the first stage of the Atlas V rocket, which will carry Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft to space with a crew. Yesterday Russian engine maker Energomash and United Launch Alliance, which launches the Atlas, signed an agreement for the purchase of six more Russian engines. The Russian government decided not to invoke Russia’s anti-sanctions law. Refusing to sell the engines would not only halt the Boeing crew program, but would also damage Russia’s domestic engine building industry, the Space Policy Institute’s Ivan Moiseyev told Pravda.
China and Myanmar Have Come to Agreement on Port Development
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—Myanmar and China have agreed upon the terms and conditions regarding the development of a Chinese-backed port on Myanmar’s western coast, according to Reuters today. Their negotiations resulted in sharply reducing the cost of the project, after Myanmar had expressed concerns about the indebtedness it would entail, Reuters reported, citing the statement of an unnamed Myanmar government official. The original price tag for full development of the Kyauk Pyu deepwater port, and an economic zone around it, was estimated to be $7.3 billion.
Reuters quoted Myanmar’s Deputy Finance Minister Set Aung, who was appointed to lead project negotiations in May, saying the “project size has been tremendously scaled down.” The revised cost would be “around $1.3 billion, something that’s much more plausible for Myanmar’s use,” said Sean Turnell, economic advisor to Myanmar’s civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
China, as part of its Belt and Road program, wants to develop the Kyauk Pyu seaport to ease energy security concerns by allowing it to import hydrocarbons from Southwest Asia while bypassing the Strait of Malacca. (Pipelines run north from Myanmar into China.) It was to this end that Kyauk Pyu was identified as an important port and economic zone.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
German Parliament Approves Last Loan Installment to Greece
Aug. 2 (EIRNS)—The German Parliament’s budget committee approved the disbursement of the last loan installment of Greece’s adjustment program yesterday, totalling €15 billion. They thereby lifted the German veto on the release of the last tranche, which was imposed in July because the Greek government had failed to get approval from its European creditors, when it postponed the increase of value-added (VAT) tax on five Aegean islands hit by the influx of migrants. These Greek islands have lost millions in tourist revenues because they are hosting thousands of migrants for which Greece has received little or no aid, certainly none from Germany.
The losses from the lowered VAT revenue amount to €28 million, and now Greece has to take that from the defense budget, in order to be able to pay the debt. Yet the Greek military has taken a leading role in the emergency created by wildfires that have so far killed more than 100 people.
Earlier this week the International Monetary Fund, despite its role in this crime against humanity, issued a report that Greece’s debt, which has nearly doubled from 100% to 180% of GDP under the “bail-out,” is unsustainable. In reaction, the European Commission defended the debt, against what it said was the IMF’s “pessimism.” “The European Commission, the European Stability Mechanism, and the European Central Bank have made their own assessment and we, as Europeans, are funding the program, and our conclusion is that the debt relief is sufficient,” said EU Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva. “We have also said we will examine the issue again in 2032.”
If this process continues, by 2032 there may not be any Greeks left.
