very interesting: India, China agree to form ’strategic partnership’ in major shift i

[Mr. Drags]

By NIRMALA GEORGE
Associated Press Writer
NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China, the world’s two most populous countries, agreed Monday to form a strategic partnership to end a border dispute and boost trade in a deal marking a major shift in relations between the Asian giants.
The agreement, signed by both premiers, eases decades of mutual distrust between the nations, which share a mountainous, 2,500-mile border and fought a war in 1962. Parts of the border still are not demarcated.
“India and China can together reshape the world order,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a ceremony for his Chinese counterpart, Premier Wen Jiabao, at India’s presidential palace.
Together, the two nations account for one-third of the world’s population.
The agreement outlined steps to demarcate the disputed boundary through a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution, through equal and friendly consultations,” a statement announcing the partnership said.
The agreement does not involve defense arrangements, so it will not give Chinese ships the use of Indian ports.
An 11-point plan to settle the border dispute was finalized Sunday at a meeting between India’s National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan and China’s Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo, the leader of the Chinese delegation to the talks.
The plan states that the countries would consider historical factors, geographical features, people living in the area, security and whether the area was currently under Indian or Chinese control when marking the border.
India says China still holds 16,000 square miles of its territory in the Kashmir region, while Beijing lays claim to a wide swath of territory in India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which shares a 650-mile border with China’s Tibet region.
China also recognized the Himalayan territory of Sikkim, located between Nepal and the kingdom of Bhutan, as a part of India, an Indian foreign ministry official said.
“A new map which the Chinese have published shows Sikkim as part of India. This is no longer an issue between us,” Shyam Saran, a top official in the External Affairs Ministry, told reporters.
Sikkim was an independent principality before it was annexed by India in 1975. China never recognized Sikkim as an Indian possession and has claimed part of the territory as its own.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the government had no immediate comment on the agreement between its two neighbors. The Foreign Ministry also declined to comment.
Saran said “the partnership is not a military alliance nor is it directed against a third country.”
China is Pakistan’s main trading partner and a big backer of its military, while it has tense but improving relations with India, with whom Pakistan has fought three wars.
Chinese engineers are helping fund and engineer a $248 million port in the remote southwestern Pakistani town of Gawadar. The project will decrease Pakistan’s reliance on its main port in Karachi.
China also is helping fund a new nuclear reactor in Pakistan to be used to generate electricity.
India and China agreed to boost bilateral trade to $20 billion by 2008. Last year, trade totaled $13.6 billion, with India recording a $1.75 billion trade surplus, according to India’s trade ministry.
The statement, while giving few details, said the agreement would promote diplomatic relations, economic ties and contribute to the nations “jointly addressing global challenges and threats.”
“The leaders of the two countries have therefore agreed to establish an India-China strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity,” the statement said.
The two countries also signed cooperation agreement in areas such as civil aviation, finance, education, science and technology, tourism and cultural exchanges.
“This is an important visit. We are working to promote friendly ties of cooperation between our two countries,” Wen said.
Wen was expected to bring up the issue of Tibet and the role of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, but it was not immediately clear if it was discussed.
India allowed the Dalai Lama to set up a government in exile in the northern Himalayan town of Dharmsala after he fled Tibet in 1959 following an aborted uprising against Chinese rule in the territory.
Both sides have in recent years forged closer economic ties, hoping improved trade relations will also help expedite the resolution of political differences.
China is keen to develop a free trade area between the two countries. Their combined population is 2 billion, which would make it the largest free trade area in the world. During their talks, Wen and Singh agreed to set up a panel of experts to study the concept.

[Eat Me]

These people have hated and mistrusted eachother longer than the Jews and Muslims. This pact is a matter of necessity and convenience...not love and trust. Indians take pride in being a real democracy. The Chinks take pride in being sneaky mother fuckers.

[Bman]

Not surprising.. you probably haven't heard much about it yet, but the BRIC alliance is something the US will have to reckon with in the coming decades

That's BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India, China (and I'd add Venezuela as a BRIC wannabe, as well)

I put up some very good articles about it in this thread

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1732&highlight=BRIC

[latent aaaack]

“India and China can together reshape the world order,” Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said at a ceremony for his Chinese counterpart, Premier Wen Jiabao, at India’s presidential palace.

Oh no you don't. It should be noted that before America was a global leader it never asked or sought to be. It was attacked in WW2 and through defending itself and coming to the aid of it's European freinds it was thrust into the position of being the global leader. It was also happy beforehand though being ranked militarily as only 17th in the world.

This is how it could have been predicted in 1935 that America would make a responsible and stabilizing leader, those with noble intentions don't lust for power. This why countries like China, France, and maybe India now should rightly be viewed with apprehension and contempt for unabashedly trying to clamber to the top of the global dog pile when the pile is stable enough as it is.

[candypreet]

Oh no you don't. It should be noted that before America was a global leader it never asked or sought to be. It was attacked in WW2 and through defending itself and coming to the aid of it's European freinds it was thrust into the position of being the global leader. It was also happy beforehand though being ranked militarily as only 17th in the world.

This is how it could have been predicted in 1935 that America would make a responsible and stabilizing leader, those with noble intentions don't lust for power. This why countries like China, France, and maybe India now should rightly be viewed with apprehension and contempt for unabashedly trying to clamber to the top of the global dog pile when the pile is stable enough as it is.
???????????????????

[latent aaaack]

???????????????????

Oh no you don't. It should be noted that before America was a global leader it never asked or sought to be. It was attacked in WW2 and through defending itself and coming to the aid of it's European freinds it was thrust into the position of being the global leader. It was also happy beforehand though being ranked militarily as only 17th in the world.

This is how it could have been predicted in 1935 that America would make a responsible and stabilizing leader, those with noble intentions don't lust for power. This why countries like China, France, and maybe India now should rightly be viewed with apprehension and contempt for unabashedly trying to clamber to the top of the global dog pile when the pile is stable enough as it is.

[candypreet]

Oh no you don't. It should be noted that before America was a global leader it never asked or sought to be. It was attacked in WW2 and through defending itself and coming to the aid of it's European freinds it was thrust into the position of being the global leader. It was also happy beforehand though being ranked militarily as only 17th in the world.

This is how it could have been predicted in 1935 that America would make a responsible and stabilizing leader, those with noble intentions don't lust for power. This why countries like China, France, and maybe India now should rightly be viewed with apprehension and contempt for unabashedly trying to clamber to the top of the global dog pile when the pile is stable enough as it is.
I did read it , but what are you trying to say?

[latent aaaack]

I did read it , but what are you trying to say?

Um...I already said it. Any questions in mind?.

[Bman]

Not surprising.. you probably haven't heard much about it yet, but the BRIC alliance is something the US will have to reckon with in the coming decades

That's BRIC for Brazil, Russia, India, China (and I'd add Venezuela as a BRIC wannabe, as well)

I put up some very good articles about it in this thread

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1732&highlight=BRIC



BRIC update


TASS

November 1, 2005 Tuesday


Joint military exercises of Russia, China and India quite possible

By Yevgeny Solovyov

BEIJING, November 1

The holding of joint military exercises by Russia, China and India "is quite possible", Head of the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Contacts with Fellow-Countrymen Andrei Kokoshin stated here on Tuesday in reply to an Itar-Tass question. He did not rule out the possibility of such manoeuvres pursuing anti-terrorist goals.

Naval exercises are most likely because the three countries "are interested in guaranteeing shipping safety". Today, Kokoshin noted, "many people say that the shipping lines, especially those used for the delivery of energy to the Asia-Pacific region, are most vulnerable, referring, in particular, to the Malacca Strait".

The system of international security will be "more stable if the two Asian giants - China and India, together with the Eurasian Russia, will have a streamlined system of interaction in the domain of security," he stressed. Moreover, Kokoshin noted, "it is necessary to show their joint potential in several regions. This will contain and sober up the potential extremists, terrorists and separatists".

Kokoshin is attending the forum on the international regional situation and the Sino-Russian strategic interaction, which is currently under way here.

[Bman]

BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

November 1, 2005 Tuesday

Russian TV underlines growing stature of Shanghai Cooperation Organization



Russian TV reports on the meeting of the heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Moscow on 26 October stressed the growing influence and authority of the organization. They also highlighted American fears that the SCO is developing into an anti-NATO military bloc, though these concerns were largely dismissed by Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov and political commentator Vyacheslav Nikonov. State-owned Channel One emphasized the SCO's role as an economic bloc.

Gazprom's NTV commented on how the SCO had grown in stature since it was formed in 2000. "A few years ago it was being said that the US invasion of Iraq had made the organization pointless. Now it is preparing to impinge on US interests in Asia," the correspondent noted. He went on to say that if the current observer nations Iran, India and Pakistan and Mongolia join, Russia and China "will be able to influence the situation in south Asia and the Middle East.

For NTV, it was the organization's military potential that deserved attention. "Although both China and Russia made statements about the economic activity of the organization, so far the most impressive projects have been military ones, such as the joint Russian-Chinese military exercises in August this year," the correspondent said.

The channel added that this is what is worrying the Americans. "Russia and China could form an eastern version of NATO," the report quoted the Christian Science Monitor as saying. State channel Rossiya (RTV) took up this theme, remarking that the organization's leaders are in "no hurry to dissuade those who view the SCO as a counterbalance to NATO".

The most enthusiastic view of the SCO was expressed on Centre TV's late news on 26 October. It said that "Russian foreign policy is undergoing a real renaissance". "Gone are the days when we struggle in the wake of the US locomotive," the presenter said. She added that "the new geopolitical alliance of Russia, China and India is almost a reality".

Centre TV went on to set out the "basis for an anti-Nato bloc" "Russia is unhappy about the approach of NATO to its borders, Iran is next in line for democratization, and China is the major rival of the USA," the presenter explained. She saw just one fly in the ointment for Russia the danger of becoming a "junior partner" in the organization to China and India.

The studio guest on Centre TV took a more lukewarm view of the SCO's military potential. President of the Politika Foundation Vyacheslav Nikonov said that an alliance between China and India is impossible at the moment, and noted that the Indians had rejected the idea of holding Chinese-Russian-Indian joint military exercises. Nikonov stressed that the Indians will not take part in exercises that are "clearly anti-American in nature".

The idea of a military alliance between SCO members was also played down by Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov on NTV's Realnaya Politika on 29 October. "We are not planning to set up any anti-NATO bloc in the East," he told host Gleb Pavlovskiy.

Presenter Aleksey Pushkov on Centre TV's Postscript shared the scepticism about the SCO's military potential, but underlined its strategic significance. "It is not so much a question of boosting the military element in the SCO's activity as of countering what a number of members see as the excessive US military presence in the region," he told viewers on 29 October. He said that the main point about the SCO was that it did not include the USA.

The general strategic purpose of the SCO was expressed in similar terms on RTV on 26 October. It said that an organization with a potential population of 3bn people was "a factor in a multipolar world"

In contrast to NTV and Centre TV, and to a lesser extent RTV, Channel One's report on the SCO meeting in Moscow focused almost exclusively on the economic aspects of the organization's work. "The main result of today's meeting is the setting up of an SCO business council," the correspondent told viewers on 26 October. He went on to give details of Russia's initiative to set up a working group on space exploration and Chinese proposals for simplifying vehicle imports and developing joint gas and telecoms networks. "China is serious about this. Like Moscow it is backing up its proposals with money," the report observed.

The economic significance of the SCO was also seized on by Vyacheslav Nikonov in his interview for Centre TV on 26 October. "In ten years' time these countries will account for over half the world's economy," the president of the Politika Foundation said

[Bman]

BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union - Political
Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring

November 1, 2005 Tuesday

Russian TV underlines growing stature of Shanghai Cooperation Organization



Russian TV reports on the meeting of the heads of government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Moscow on 26 October stressed the growing influence and authority of the organization. They also highlighted American fears that the SCO is developing into an anti-NATO military bloc, though these concerns were largely dismissed by Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov and political commentator Vyacheslav Nikonov. State-owned Channel One emphasized the SCO's role as an economic bloc.



Bman tried to tell you all about the formation of an "ASIAN NATO", driven by the alarm caused in Asia by Bush's "pre-emptive" aggression and new colonialism.


I posted about it in Nov. of last year.. I'm posting it again.

Go back to American Idol, or Natalie Holloway, or whatever else mind-numbing mental opium you utilize to "ease your pain"

Nothing to see here.. Move along



Ready to Admit Iran to Asian Bloc
By Patrick Goodenough

Apr 19, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - An Asian security and economic bloc driven largely by China may soon open its doors to Iran and other contenders for membership, a move that may help to "make the world more fair," a senior Iranian official said.

The move comes at a sensitive time in the international dispute over Iran's suspect nuclear activities. While the U.S. seeks to isolate Iran, China and Russia oppose any steps by the U.S. and others to pressure Tehran to back away from its nuclear program.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which currently comprises China, Russia and four Central Asian republics, is preparing for a mid-year summit that is expected to enlarge the group, reform its secretariat, and possibly refocus its agenda.

Iran and three other observer nations -- Pakistan, India and Mongolia -- will soon be invited to join as full members, SCO Secretary General Zhang Deguang said last week.

If they do join, the SCO will stretch from the Pacific to the Caucasus and include the world's most populous countries, fastest-growing economies, and some of its biggest oil and gas producers.

It also will effectively encircle Afghanistan, whose U.S.-backed government has up to now resisted SCO overtures. (President Hamid Karzai and a Mongolian presidential envoy were both invited to SCO's 2004 summit in Uzbekistan. Mongolia then requested, and was granted, observer status; Afghanistan did not.)

The SCO in its current form was established in 2001, when Uzbekistan joined an existing "Shanghai Five," a group made up of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Its main focus has been regional security and the fight against separatism and extremism, but last year witnessed a shift linked by some analysts to Beijing's opposition to American "hegemony" and wariness about U.S. presence near its western flank.

At its 2005 summit last July, the SCO called for the U.S. to set a deadline for withdrawing its forces from bases in Central Asia. The troops were deployed there in support of post-9/11 military operations in Afghanistan, but the SCO argued that military operations in Afghanistan were winding down.

Uzbekistan, whose government's relations with the U.S. had deteriorated over criticism of human rights abuses, subsequently gave the Pentagon notice to withdraw U.S. troops and aircraft from a base in the country by year's end.

SCO members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have not taken equivalent steps. The U.S. operates an airbase in Kyrgyzstan and has overflight and refueling rights in Tajikistan.

Writing in the Eurasia Daily Monitor on Tuesday, Central Asian expert Roger McDermott said China was using the SCO "to advance its own geopolitical interests within the region," a region in which he says "Beijing wants to minimize Western influence."

At this year's summit, to be held in Shanghai, the Iran issue is expected to feature.

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. was making it clear the U.N. Security Council should take "meaningful steps ... to address the threat posed by the regime's continued defiance."

However, not only have the Chinese and Russian governments consistently resisted talk of punitive steps against Iran, in both countries suspicions have been voiced about what lies behind Washington's opposition to Iran's nuclear activities.

Heritage Foundation scholar John Tkacik notes that the state-controlled People's Daily in Beijing published a commentary last week charging that America's real aim was to see sanctions imposed, to pave the way to regime-change in Tehran.

Speaking in Moscow last Friday, Iran's deputy foreign minister Manouchehr Mohammadi said Iran was counting on SCO support for its nuclear stance.

The Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying that expanding the SCO would make the SCO stronger and "could make the world more fair."

How SCO members see the bloc's evolving role remains the subject of speculation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told China's Xinhua news agency last month the five-year-old organization had completed the initial goals of regional integration and was now seeking "new ways" of international cooperation.

SCO members have carried out joint military and counter-terror maneuvers, and member states' defense ministers are due to meet at the end of April.

Russia's permanent envoy to the grouping, Grigory Logvinov, said Tuesday that although there were no plans to turn the SCO into a military bloc, "as threats of terrorism, extremism and separatism have increased, substantial involvement of armed forces is necessary to combat them effectively."


http://www.townhall.com/news/ext_wire.html?rowid=46952

[Ethyl]

:love_04: SCO, eh BMAN. That is an incredibly astute find, and I could kiss you right now if a)I wasn't married and b) wasn't in the land of words....


GREAT WORK!

[Bman]

:love_04: SCO, eh BMAN. That is an incredibly astute find, and I could kiss you right now if a)I wasn't married and b) wasn't in the land of words....


GREAT WORK!


Thanks Ethyl! the only other person I have ever seen post on that topic, was.. , of course.. YOU

:)

[Vast]

BRIC update


TASS

November 1, 2005 Tuesday


Joint military exercises of Russia, China and India quite possible

By Yevgeny Solovyov

BEIJING, November 1

The holding of joint military exercises by Russia, China and India "is quite possible", Head of the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Contacts with Fellow-Countrymen Andrei Kokoshin stated here on Tuesday in reply to an Itar-Tass question. He did not rule out the possibility of such manoeuvres pursuing anti-terrorist goals.

Naval exercises are most likely because the three countries "are interested in guaranteeing shipping safety". Today, Kokoshin noted, "many people say that the shipping lines, especially those used for the delivery of energy to the Asia-Pacific region, are most vulnerable, referring, in particular, to the Malacca Strait".

The system of international security will be "more stable if the two Asian giants - China and India, together with the Eurasian Russia, will have a streamlined system of interaction in the domain of security," he stressed. Moreover, Kokoshin noted, "it is necessary to show their joint potential in several regions. This will contain and sober up the potential extremists, terrorists and separatists".

Kokoshin is attending the forum on the international regional situation and the Sino-Russian strategic interaction, which is currently under way here.

Look back and see how long pseudo-alliances last. China and Pakistan have worked in the past in joint ventures producing weapons...if that continues, ole India will get angry...

and Russia? You mean they sold another ticket to space for some rich American?? Oh boy, them Russian sailors finally get to take their ships out of port.

[Ethyl]

Thanks Ethyl! the only other person I have ever seen post on that topic, was.. , of course.. YOU

:)

There are so many groups behind the scenes right now it is impossible to follow all of them. I totally forgot about these dudes.

[Ethyl]

Deputy Defense Minister: Cooperation of Kazakhstan with NATO corresponds with Nazarbayev’s message


“We shoould strengthen cooperation of Central Asian countries to meet modern challenges, also to take part in conducting of joint maneuvers in the framework of CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization, as well as in anti-terror initiatives and operations, conducted together with NATO,” Doctor of Political Science, Deputy Defense Minister of Kazakhstan Bolat Sembinov cited Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev during discussion of NATO interests in Central Asian region at the 5th Eurasian Media Forum, a REGNUM correspondent informs.



As the deputy minister stressed, activation of joint effort in struggle against international terrorism, religious extremism, drug trafficking, and cooperation in science and education are priorities of Kazakhstan’s cooperation with NATO. According to the Kazakhstan-NATO treaty, the country allowed NATO aircrafts to cross its territory, as well as to land in case of emergency. “Till now, more than 3,000 aircrafts have crossed our air space. Sixty emergency landings have been carried out,” stressed the deputy minister. According to him, material assistance was rendered to Afghanistan and Afghan army in the framework of cooperation with the Alliance.



“Effective work of our corps in Iraq, which fulfills there a noble mission, may be considered as important result of achieved level of compatibility and training on the whole in accordance with NATO standard,” stressed Bolat Sembinov. According to date, cited by the deputy minister, the Kazakh contingent succeeded in destroying of 3 millions of ammunition units during its peaceful mission in Iraq. Kazakhstan doctors, together with their colleagues from the peaceful mission, succeeded in rescuing lives of more than 500 Iraqi citizens, one third of which is children. Supporting the mission of Kazakhstan contingent in Iraq, political scientist, Professor of Diplomatic Academy of Russian Foreign Ministry Igor Panarin expressed a wish that Kazakh peaceful forces should take active part in destroying drug plantations in Afghanistan.

http://www.regnum.ru/english/628441.html

[Ethyl]

http://www.wincoast.com/forum/showthread.php?p=661080#post661080

[sidthereal]

Oh no you don't. It should be noted that before America was a global leader it never asked or sought to be. It was attacked in WW2 and through defending itself and coming to the aid of it's European freinds it was thrust into the position of being the global leader. It was also happy beforehand though being ranked militarily as only 17th in the world.

This is how it could have been predicted in 1935 that America would make a responsible and stabilizing leader, those with noble intentions don't lust for power. This why countries like China, France, and maybe India now should rightly be viewed with apprehension and contempt for unabashedly trying to clamber to the top of the global dog pile when the pile is stable enough as it is.
Okay, taking your thing at face value....
Why did America insist on controlling world financial resources through
1. The establishment of the IMF and the WorldBank
2. Deny the the entry of other major powers and influential countries into the security council permanent seat
3. Practically insist upon showcasing its military poweress against defenceless states?
4. Claim in all respects of economic and military terms upmanship and diplomatically showcase itself as a world power, and the only world power to be reckoned with?

America was brought into the war in the first two world wars. The newest wars, were all caused by American policies. That is fact. But in no way does it condone the act of 911.

[candypreet]

good posts here

[Ethyl]

Rumsfeld questions Iran's involvement with SCO

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Saturday questioned Iran's involvement with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), saying the regime's terrorist links clashed with the aims of the Russian and Chinese-dominated group.

Speaking at a regional security conference, Rumsfeld said he found it ``strange'' that the SCO would include Iran, given the group's stated opposition to terrorism and extremism.

Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been invited to attend the annual SCO summit in Shanghai this month.

Iran is an observer to group, which also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and has applied for full membership.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200606030921.htm

[Bman]

BRIC update


TASS

November 1, 2005 Tuesday


Joint military exercises of Russia, China and India quite possible

By Yevgeny Solovyov

BEIJING, November 1

The holding of joint military exercises by Russia, China and India "is quite possible", Head of the Duma Committee for CIS Affairs and Contacts with Fellow-Countrymen Andrei Kokoshin stated here on Tuesday in reply to an Itar-Tass question. He did not rule out the possibility of such manoeuvres pursuing anti-terrorist goals.

Naval exercises are most likely because the three countries "are interested in guaranteeing shipping safety". Today, Kokoshin noted, "many people say that the shipping lines, especially those used for the delivery of energy to the Asia-Pacific region, are most vulnerable, referring, in particular, to the Malacca Strait".

The system of international security will be "more stable if the two Asian giants - China and India, together with the Eurasian Russia, will have a streamlined system of interaction in the domain of security," he stressed. Moreover, Kokoshin noted, "it is necessary to show their joint potential in several regions. This will contain and sober up the potential extremists, terrorists and separatists".

Kokoshin is attending the forum on the international regional situation and the Sino-Russian strategic interaction, which is currently under way here.





February 15, 2007

Giants meet to counter US powerJeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

The foreign ministers, Pranab Mukherjee, Li Zhao Xing and Sergei Lavrov, emphasised that theirs was not an alliance against the United States. It was, “on the contrary, intended to promote international harmony and understanding”, a joint communiqué stated.

Their formal agenda covered issues ranging from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and North Korea to energy security, nuclear non-proliferation and trade. The subtext, however, was clear: how to use their growing economic and political muscle to prevent Washington from tackling such issues alone.

“In the long term, they feel that the whole structure of international relations has to shift in their direction,” said Vinod C. Khanna, of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. “What has happened is that quite independently they’ve reacted very similarly to recent international events.”

Mr Mukherjee said: “We agreed that cooperation rather than confrontation should govern approaches to regional and global affairs. We also agreed on the importance of the UN.”

Diplomats say that it is premature to talk of a strategic axis between the world’s largest and two most populous nations because they still have more in common with the West than with each other.

Delhi was close to Moscow in Soviet times, but has forged a new friendship with Washington. Chinese relations were soured by its border wars with India in 1962 and the Soviet Union in 1969, and by its arms sales to Pakistan. Russia appears keener than China or India to challenge American hegemony. But there has been a convergence of interests as each struggles to make the transition from a command economy to free markets. Since 2003 they have found further common ground in opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq.

One area of agreement is opposition to outside interference in separatist conflicts in Chechnya, the northeast of India and the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

Another is energy. India and China are desperate for Russian oil and gas, and Moscow is worried about its dependence on Western markets. But their most significant common ground is opposition to US military intervention in Iran. The joint statement did not mention Iran, but the three countries have taken a common stance in calling for a negotiated solution through the International Atomic Energy Agency. None of them wants a nuclear-armed Iran, but Russia sells Tehran nuclear technology and India and China need Iranian gas.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1386812.ece

[Bman]

Bman tried to tell you all about the formation of an "ASIAN NATO", driven by the alarm caused in Asia by Bush's "pre-emptive" aggression and new colonialism.


I posted about it in Nov. of last year.. I'm posting it again.

Go back to American Idol, or Natalie Holloway, or whatever else mind-numbing mental opium you utilize to "ease your pain"

Nothing to see here.. Move along



Ready to Admit Iran to Asian Bloc
By Patrick Goodenough

Apr 19, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - An Asian security and economic bloc driven largely by China may soon open its doors to Iran and other contenders for membership, a move that may help to "make the world more fair," a senior Iranian official said.

The move comes at a sensitive time in the international dispute over Iran's suspect nuclear activities. While the U.S. seeks to isolate Iran, China and Russia oppose any steps by the U.S. and others to pressure Tehran to back away from its nuclear program.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which currently comprises China, Russia and four Central Asian republics, is preparing for a mid-year summit that is expected to enlarge the group, reform its secretariat, and possibly refocus its agenda.

Iran and three other observer nations -- Pakistan, India and Mongolia -- will soon be invited to join as full members, SCO Secretary General Zhang Deguang said last week.

If they do join, the SCO will stretch from the Pacific to the Caucasus and include the world's most populous countries, fastest-growing economies, and some of its biggest oil and gas producers.

It also will effectively encircle Afghanistan, whose U.S.-backed government has up to now resisted SCO overtures. (President Hamid Karzai and a Mongolian presidential envoy were both invited to SCO's 2004 summit in Uzbekistan. Mongolia then requested, and was granted, observer status; Afghanistan did not.)

The SCO in its current form was established in 2001, when Uzbekistan joined an existing "Shanghai Five," a group made up of Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Its main focus has been regional security and the fight against separatism and extremism, but last year witnessed a shift linked by some analysts to Beijing's opposition to American "hegemony" and wariness about U.S. presence near its western flank.

At its 2005 summit last July, the SCO called for the U.S. to set a deadline for withdrawing its forces from bases in Central Asia. The troops were deployed there in support of post-9/11 military operations in Afghanistan, but the SCO argued that military operations in Afghanistan were winding down.

Uzbekistan, whose government's relations with the U.S. had deteriorated over criticism of human rights abuses, subsequently gave the Pentagon notice to withdraw U.S. troops and aircraft from a base in the country by year's end.

SCO members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have not taken equivalent steps. The U.S. operates an airbase in Kyrgyzstan and has overflight and refueling rights in Tajikistan.

Writing in the Eurasia Daily Monitor on Tuesday, Central Asian expert Roger McDermott said China was using the SCO "to advance its own geopolitical interests within the region," a region in which he says "Beijing wants to minimize Western influence."

At this year's summit, to be held in Shanghai, the Iran issue is expected to feature.

The White House said Tuesday the U.S. was making it clear the U.N. Security Council should take "meaningful steps ... to address the threat posed by the regime's continued defiance."

However, not only have the Chinese and Russian governments consistently resisted talk of punitive steps against Iran, in both countries suspicions have been voiced about what lies behind Washington's opposition to Iran's nuclear activities.

Heritage Foundation scholar John Tkacik notes that the state-controlled People's Daily in Beijing published a commentary last week charging that America's real aim was to see sanctions imposed, to pave the way to regime-change in Tehran.

Speaking in Moscow last Friday, Iran's deputy foreign minister Manouchehr Mohammadi said Iran was counting on SCO support for its nuclear stance.

The Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying that expanding the SCO would make the SCO stronger and "could make the world more fair."

How SCO members see the bloc's evolving role remains the subject of speculation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told China's Xinhua news agency last month the five-year-old organization had completed the initial goals of regional integration and was now seeking "new ways" of international cooperation.

SCO members have carried out joint military and counter-terror maneuvers, and member states' defense ministers are due to meet at the end of April.

Russia's permanent envoy to the grouping, Grigory Logvinov, said Tuesday that although there were no plans to turn the SCO into a military bloc, "as threats of terrorism, extremism and separatism have increased, substantial involvement of armed forces is necessary to combat them effectively."


http://www.townhall.com/news/ext_wire.html?rowid=46952



Bump as well