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New world relationships
By Noam Chomsky
03/10/06 "Khaleej
Times" -- -- THE prospect that Europe and Asia
might move toward greater independence has troubled US planners
since World War II. The concerns have only risen as the ‘tripolar
order’ — Europe, North America and Asia — has continued to evolve.
Every day, Latin America, too, is becoming more independent. Now
Asia and the Americas are strengthening their ties while the
reigning superpower, the odd man out, consumes itself in
misadventures in the Middle East.
Regional integration in Asia and Latin America is a crucial and
increasingly important issue that, from Washington's perspective,
betokens a defiant world gone out of control. Energy, of course,
remains a defining factor — the object of contention — everywhere.
China, unlike Europe, refuses to be intimidated by Washington, a
primary reason for the fear of China by US planners, which presents
a dilemma: Steps towards confrontation are inhibited by US corporate
reliance on China as an export platform and growing market, as well
as China's financial reserves, reported to be approaching Japan's in
scale.
In January, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin
Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia visited Beijing, which is expected to lead
to a Sino-Saudi memorandum of understanding calling for "increased
cooperation and investment between the two countries in oil, natural
gas and investment," The Wall Street Journal reports. Already, much
of Iran's oil goes to China, and China is providing Iran with
weapons that both states presumably regard as deterrent to US
designs. India also has options. India may choose to be a US client,
or it may prefer to join the more independent Asian bloc that is
taking shape, with ever more ties to Middle East oil producers.
Siddarth Varadarajan, deputy editor of The Hindu, observes that "if
the 21st century is to be an 'Asian century,' Asia's passivity in
the energy sector has to end."
The key is India-China cooperation. In January, an agreement signed
in Beijing "cleared the way for India and China to collaborate not
only in technology, but also in hydrocarbon exploration and
production, a partnership that could eventually alter fundamental
equations in the world's oil and natural gas sector," Varadarjan
points out. An additional step, already being contemplated, is an
Asian oil market trading in euros. The impact on the international
financial system and the balance of global power could be
significant. It should be no surprise that President Bush paid a
recent visit to try to keep India in the fold, offering nuclear
cooperation and other inducements as a lure.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, left-centre governments prevail from
Venezuela to Argentina. The indigenous populations have become much
more active and influential, particularly in Bolivia and Ecuador,
where they either want oil and gas to be domestically controlled or,
in some cases, oppose production altogether. Many indigenous people
apparently do not see any reason why their lives, societies and
cultures should be disrupted or destroyed so that New Yorkers can
sit in their SUVs in traffic gridlock.
Venezuela, the leading oil exporter in the hemisphere, has forged
probably the closest relations with China of any Latin American
country, and is planning to sell increasing amounts of oil to China
as part of its effort to reduce dependence on the openly hostile US
government. Venezuela has joined Mercosur, the South American
customs union, a move described by Argentine President Nestor
Kirchner as ‘a milestone’ in the development of this trading bloc,
and welcomed as a "new chapter in our integration" by Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Venezuela, apart from supplying
Argentina with fuel oil, bought almost a third of Argentine debt
issued in 2005, one element of a region-wide effort to free the
countries from the controls of the International Monetary Fund after
two decades of disastrous conformity to the rules imposed by the US
-dominated international financial institutions. Steps towards
Southern Cone integration advanced further in December with the
election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, the country's first indigenous
president. Morales moved quickly to reach a series of energy accords
with Venezuela.
The Financial Times reported that these "are expected to underpin
forthcoming radical reforms to Bolivia's economy and energy sector"
with its huge gas reserves, second only to Venezuela's in South
America. Cuba-Venezuela relations are becoming ever closer, each
relying on its comparative advantage. Venezuela is providing
low-cost oil, while in return Cuba organises literacy and health
programmes, sending thousands of highly-skilled professionals,
teachers and doctors, who work in the poorest and most neglected
areas, as they do elsewhere in the Third World.
Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed elsewhere. One of
the most horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in
Pakistan last October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers
of survivors have to face brutal winter weather with little shelter,
food or medical assistance. “Cuba has provided the largest
contingent of doctors and paramedics to Pakistan," paying all the
costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes John Cherian in
India's Frontline, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed his ‘deep
gratitude’ to Fidel Castro for the ‘spirit and compassion’ of the
Cuban medical teams —reported to comprise more than 1,000 trained
personnel, 44 per cent of them women, who remained to work in remote
mountain villages, "living in tents in freezing weather and in an
alien culture" after Western aid teams had been withdrawn. Growing
popular movements, primarily in the South, but with increasing
participation in the rich industrial countries, are serving as the
bases for many of these developments towards more independence and
concern for the needs of the great majority of the population.
Noam Chomsky, the author, most recently, of Imperial Ambitions:
Conversations on the Post-9/11 World, is a professor of linguistics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge,
Massachussets
© 2005 Khaleej Times
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