Where are the Real Decisions Being Made?
Bilderberg vs. the SCO
By ERIC WALBERG - June 23, 2011 - Counterpunch
http://www.counterpunch.org/walberg06232011.html?
Last week's 10th Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation (SCO) summit in the Kazakh capital
Astana highlighted how the major rivals to
empire, led by Russia and China -- themselves
rivals, are trying to fashion an alternative to US hegemony.
The SCO is the only major international
organisation that has neither the US nor any
close US ally among its members, and its
influence is growing across Eurasia. Leaders of
member states Russia, China, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan were
joined by leaders from observers Iran, Pakistan,
India, Afghanistan and Mongolia. Belarus and Sri
Lanka have been admitted as dialogue partners,
and prior to his arrival in Astana to attend the
summit, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Ukraine.
With a Chinese rhetorical flourish, the Astana
Declaration stressed the goal of combatting the
"three forces" of "terrorism, extremism, and
separatism". The summit called for a "neutral"
Afghanistan (read: no permanent US bases),
supported by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, even
as the US is actively discussing a post-2014
strategic partnership agreement with him. The
prospect of permanent US military bases in
Afghanistan lies at the core of current
US-Pakistan tensions. India has indicated its
aversion to "new cold war" tensions appearing in the region.
Russia and China fear that the US plan is to
establish permanent bases in Afghanistan and to
deploy components of its missile defence system.
The SCO meeting supported Russian criticisms of
the planned NATO missile defence shield underway
in Europe . Plans by "a country or small group of
countries unilaterally and without restriction to
deploy an anti-missile system could undermine
strategic stability and international security".
The summit also called for Afghanistan's
neighbours to play the leading role in improving
security and helping to rebuild Afghanistan,
rejecting a purely military solution. "It is
possible that the SCO will assume responsibility
for many issues in Afghanistan after the
withdrawal of coalition forces in 2014," said
Kazakh President Nurusultan Nazarbayev, echoing
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's call "for
more intensive and deeper cooperation between the SCO and Afghanistan".
Both Beijing and Moscow are already rebuilding
their influence there, China in mining, and both
countries in infrastructure projects and
cooperation with Western forces to combat drug
trafficking. "Afghanistan was the main reason the
SCO was created 10 years ago, even before 9/11
forced the Americans to recognise the threat,"
says Duma deputy Sergei Markov. "The threat of
radical Islamism being exported into our region
is something we're very familiar with. And a
resurgence of that threat has got to be a major concern."
During the conference, the UN Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) signed an accord with the SCO to
promote cooperation in fighting drug trafficking,
organised crime, human trafficking and
international terrorism. UNODC Executive Director
Yury Fedotov said, "Countries such as Kazakhstan
are on the frontline of the flow of Afghan heroin
headed towards the West. The work in countering
organised crime and drug trafficking, which I am
pleased to see is increasingly taking on a
cooperative approach." The most urgent issue is
heroin trafficking from Afghanistan via
Tajikistan which surged after the 2001 US invasion.
Security cooperation and economic development
were described as the "two wheels" of the SCO by
its General Secretary Zhang Deguang. China's
People's Daily noted, "Among other concrete moves
is the construction of a railway, highway and
pipeline network linking landlocked Central Asia
and its rich natural resources to the global
economy." Currently a natural gas Pease Pipeline
is under construction which could eventually link
Iran, Pakistan, India and China, helping to
overcome India-Pakistani animosity and integrate
the entire region on the basis of mutual
interests, carefully shepherded by China.
Central Asian and South Asian security are
indivisible, and the proposed memberships of
India and Pakistan were seriously discussed.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to
work with SCO members to achieve regional peace.
Zardari stated Pakistan belongs to the SCO region
and is keen to cooperate with the other countries
in financing joint ventures in energy,
infrastructure, education, science and
technology. He pointed to its newly opened port
at Gwadar, which China helped fund, as a useful transport hub for the region.
The SCO has been increasing security cooperation
among its members, including joint Russia-China
war games, and beginning in April this year,
meetings of military chiefs of the SCO countries.
However, the SCO is far from being a cohesive
military alliance such as NATO. The admission of
Pakistan and India, long term enemies, will only
complicate military cooperation, with India's
patron Russia vs Pakistan's patron China.
China is clearly the power beyind the SCO,its
"wheels" offering the region much more
economically than Russia, but the common will of
all to keep the US at bay is a balm to all. What
better way to ease tensions between all these
rivals than through SCO security drills enhancing
the inter-operability of militaries and
law-enforcement agencies? According to MK
Bhadrakumar this will make "NATO (and Pax
Americana) simply irrelevant to an entire landmass".
The high-flown words about peace, regional
security and cooperation were for the press (and
Obama). Behind closed doors, the leaders
discussed their growing concerns about how the
Arab spring might impact the region, particularly
Central Asia's most populous state and harshest
dictatorship – Uzbekistan. The SCO summit is one
of the few international events where its leader
Islam Karimov is still welcomed.
Another topic at the SCO meeting was how to move
towards a new world currency, one established not
by world bankers at secretive Bilderberg
meetings, but openly, by the major world resource
and population centres as represented by the SCO.
Nazarbayev said that a healthy supranational
currency is needed and recommended a return to
some form of gold standard. "The SCO is capable
of doing this. The swap operations that we have
started is the first step. This is necessary for
equal cooperation within the SCO."
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad provided
some colour to the otherwise muted affair with
his call for the SCO to take a more active role
in undermining the US-led global system of
"slavers and colonisers" and replacing it with a
more just order. "Which one of our countries [has
played a role] in the black era of slavery, or in
the destruction of hundreds of millions of human
beings? I believe together we can reform the way
the world is managed. We can restore the tranquility of the world."
The SCO meeting came days after the close of the
Bilderberg Group's summit in St Moritz
Switzerland, which China's Vice Minister of
Foreign Affairs Fu Ying attended this year --
acknowledgment that without China's approval,
nothing is possible in the world of finance
anymore. Like the SCO, its agenda reportedly also
included what to do about the Arab spring, but
also, in a more sinister vein, plans for internet
censorhip, choosing the next IMF chief, more
Euro-bailouts and higher oil prices.
China, Russia, Pakistan, India -- not to mention
Iran -- the SCO brings together the most serious
threats to the empire's plans in one clutch. With
the possible exception of China, Bush didn't take
any of them seriously. Obama does. But so far,
the SCO has been more bark than bite. If by this
time next year, India and Pakistan are admitted,
and if non-dollar denominated "swaps" reach a
critical mass, Bilderberg may well have to put
the SCO and what to do about it at the top of its next agenda.
Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/. You can reach him at http://ericwalberg.com
+44 (0)7786 952037
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"Capitalism is institutionalised bribery."
_________________
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poison which alienates the possessor from the community" Carl Jung
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--
Please consider seriously the reason why these elite institutions are not discussed in the mainstream press despite the immense financial and political power they wield?
There are sick and evil occultists running the Western World. They are power mad lunatics like something from a kids cartoon with their fingers on the nuclear button! Armageddon is closer than you thought. Only God can save our souls from their clutches, at least that's my considered opinion - Tony
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