China Joins Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan in Security Alliance

 

The United States has entered its eighteenth year of war in Afghanistan with no end in sight. Talks begin and end, strategies and tactics are invented and tried, but all to no avail — nothing works. The American public is fed up with this war and it is sapping US resources. During the 2016 presidential race, Trump campaigned for a radical new approach to this conflict that offers America no victories or benefits. It’s time to keep his word.

Australia concerned about Chinese firm’s involvement in undersea cable project

 

Australia has expressed concern about a plan by a Chinese telecommunications company to provide high-speed Internet to the Solomon Islands, a small Pacific island nation with which Australia shares Internet resources. The company, Huawei Technologies, a private Chinese venture, is one of the world’s leading telecommunications hardware manufacturers. In recent years, however, it has come under scrutiny by Western intelligence agencies, who view it as being too close to the Communist Party of China.

As U.S. balks at rebuilding infrastructure, China advances ‘Silk Road Economic Belt’ strategy to dominate Eurasia, Africa

 

On May 14-15, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) hosted the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The Beijing meeting attracted 29 heads of state (including Russian President Vladimir Putin) and representatives of 130 other countries (including the U.S.), plus the leaders of 70 international organizations, including UN Secretary-General António Guterres.

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave the keynote address heralding the “One Belt, One Road” initiative (BRI) as a top priority. And well it should be, given that its goal is nothing less than to establish Chinese preeminence (even hegemony) over Eurasia and Africa.

India, Pakistan to Become Full Fledged SCO Members

Not only is this an economic union forming, but also the next world war axis under construction. It is a Sino-Soviet military counterweight to the global Western hegemony.

 

 

The meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states wrapped up in Astana on April 21. The participants confirmed the unanimous decision to grant full-fledged membership to India and Pakistan at the SCO Astana summit on June 8-9, 2017.

The SCO was established in 2001 as a multi-purpose regional organization active in three main fields: economic, military-political and humanitarian. The SCO members now are Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Belarus are the SCO observer-countries, while Azerbaijan, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Armenia, Cambodia and Nepal are dialogue partners. Although Russia and China are the most important SCO members, the organization operates by consensus.

China-backed AIIB ‘on track to meet 2016 lending targets’

The China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is “on track” to meet its big first-year targets, including lending US$1.2 billion by the end of 2016, bank president Jin Liqun said on Friday.

After bringing many US allies on board and a high-profile launch in January, the multilateral lender moved onto the business of raising funds, gaining expertise, and recruiting experienced executives.

The bank, part of Beijing’s push to expand its regional clout, has lent US$829 million to six projects in Pakistan, Tajikistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh.

China’s Entrance Into SDR Basket Shifts Global Finance

Remember the renminbi billboard sighting in China back in March of 2015? Well, it has officially landed.

On Monday, October 3rd, 2016, a turning point for America begins: The beginning of the end for the global U.S. Dollar hegemony.

 

China’s yuan, or Renminbi (RMB), will officially join the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket on Saturday, which indicates a step up in the international status of the currency.

• The inclusion is first and foremost recognition of the substantial reform efforts conducted by Chinese monetary authorities.
• “The RMB is already, for a number of years, very much an international currency.
• China has also taken additional measures to allow the inclusion of RMBinto the SDR,” said Jurgen Conrad, head of the Economics Unit at the Asian Development Bank in China.
• Alfred Schipke, the chief China representative of the IMF, thinks that the move’s significance isn’t limited only to the country.
• “[I think] the RMB joining the SDR will indeed be a milestone for China, but also for the international financial system. It, in effect, recognizes the progress that has been made on the reform side in China over the past couple of years,” said Schipke.

Germany’s War Record (II)

BERLIN/KABUL (Own report) – Nearly 15 years ago, NATO launched its war on Afghanistan. Under the occupation – with Germany playing a significant role – the economic and social conditions of the country are disastrous and the security situation, desolate. Since 2001, more than 220,000 people have been killed in the war, either as direct victims of combat or indirectly, according to a comprehensive analysis. The security situation in the country has “dramatically deteriorated,” affirms the German Bundestag’s Defense Commissioner. Today, soldiers must be flown by helicopter from one base to another, because use of the roads is too dangerous, even for armored vehicles. According to the United Nations, the number of refugees has reached 1.1 million, tendency rising. Opium cultivation is still Afghanistan’s largest economic sector. By national standards, 39.1 percent of the Afghans are living below the poverty line; 2.7 million are undernourished. The Bundeswehr, however, detects a positive development and recommends “patience and endurance.” (This is part 2 of a german-foreign-policy.com series, reporting on consequences of German military interventions over the past two decades, in light of the German government’s announcement of plans to increase its “global” – including military – interventions.)

Canada applies to join China-backed AIIB, latest US ally to apply

BEIJING: Canada will apply to join the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, Canadian and bank officials said on Wednesday, making it the latest ally of the United States to join the new international development bank.

The multilateral institution, seen as a rival to the Western-dominated World Bank and Asian Development Bank, was initially opposed by the United States but attracted many U.S. allies including Britain, Germany, Australia and South Korea as founding members.

Deathblow to the Dollar

Lessons from 2015, for today:

 

(Gary Dorning/The Trumpet)

 

 

The world is entering a new economic era—one that won’t be defined by America.

This past March marked a radical turning point for the global economy, particularly the United States’ economic dominance.

China proposed the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (aiib)—a new, Chinese-run international bank specifically designed to challenge U.S. global economic leadership. America tried to convince other nations not to agree to join. But it failed—even with its closest allies.

For the U.S., it was an unmitigated disaster.

The IMF Just Entered The Cold War, Forgives Ukraine’s Debt To Russia

Since 1947 when it really started operations, the World Bank has acted as a branch of the U.S. Defense Department, from its first major chairman John J. McCloy through Robert McNamara to Robert Zoellick and neocon Paul Wolfowitz. From the outset, it has promoted U.S. exports – especially farm exports – by steering Third World countries to produce plantation crops rather than feeding their own populations. (They are to import U.S. grain.) But it has felt obliged to wrap its U.S. export promotion and support for the dollar area in an ostensibly internationalist rhetoric, as if what’s good for the United States is good for the world.

How China successfully redrew the global financial map with AIIB

From worries that it would not raise enough funds to concerns other nations would not support it, Beijing was plagued by self-doubt when it first considered setting up the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in early 2013, two sources with knowledge of internal discussions said.

However, promises by some Middle East governments to stump up cash and the support of key European nations – to Beijing’s surprise and despite US opposition – proved a turning point in China’s plans to alter the global financial architecture.

BRICS Bank, AIIB Pledge Partnership, Loans To Be Issued In Yuan

Over the first half of the year, we’ve built on several narratives that we believe are critical when it comes to understanding how the intersection of geopolitics and economics is set to shape the world going forward.

One of these narratives revolves around the extent to which three China-led ventures are set to supplant traditionally dominant supranational lenders on the way to embedding the yuan in international trade and investment.

The new ventures are the BRICS bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Silk Road Fund. We’ve discussed each of these at length and we’ve also shown that in one way or another, they all represent a shift away from the multilateral institutions that have dominated the post-war economic order. 

Deathblow to the Dollar

The future is sealed, and it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’. If you’ve been paying attention to the news of lately, you will have noticed a lot of predictions for September, 2015. Could the experts be on to something? As far as a specified date is concerned, we’ll soon see.

 

 

The world is entering a new economic era—one that won’t be defined by America.

This past March marked a radical turning point for the global economy, particularly the United States’ economic dominance.

China proposed the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (aiib)—a new, Chinese-run international bank specifically designed to challenge U.S. global economic leadership. America tried to convince other nations not to agree to join. But it failed—even with its closest allies.

For the U.S., it was an unmitigated disaster.

It should be a “wake-up call,” to a “new economic era,” wrote former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.

US unable to stop AIIB’s goal of breaking monopoly

Over 40 countries applied to become founding members of the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) before the March 31 deadline, doubling the size of the bank from Beijing’s initial conception.

The applications showed that the planned bank, which has been seen as posing a challenge to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and a possible threat to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, is supported by both developed and emerging economies.

The New Order Emerges

China and Russia have taken the lead in establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), seen as a rival organisation to the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, which are dominated by the United States with Europe and Japan.

These banks do business at the behest of the old Bretton Woods* order. The AIIB will dance to China and Russia’s tune instead.

The geopolitical importance was immediately evident from the US’s negative reaction to the UK’s announcement this week that it would join the AIIB. And very shortly afterwards France, Germany and Italy also defied the US and announced they might join. In the Pacific region, one of America’s closest allies, Australia, says she is considering joining too along with New Zealand. The list of US allies seeking to join is growing. From a geopolitical point of view China and Russia have completely outmanoeuvred the US, splitting both NATO and America’s Pacific alliances right down the middle.