China and Russia Pivot to Eurasia

While much hot air has been expended on America's 'pivot' to the Pacific, China and Russia have been quietly wrapping up the part of the world that decides all our destinies, Eurasia. They've now aligned most of the countries between the Baltic and the Pacific, as the following items make clear:

Setback for EU plan to curb Russia gas dependency

BY ANDREW RETTMAN

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BRUSSELS - EU plans to lower dependence on Russian gas in south-eastern member states have suffered a setback with the death of the "Nabucco" pipeline scheme.

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  Russia uses gas dependency to exert political pressure on former Iron Curtain countries (Photo: eni.com)

Austrian firm OMV, part of the Nabucco consortium, said on Wednesday (26 June) that Azerbaijan, the gas supplier, has opted for the rival "Tap" pipeline instead. Read the whole thing. Austrian firm OMV, part of the Nabucco consortium, said on Wednesday (26 June) that Azerbaijan, the gas supplier, has opted for the rival "Tap" pipeline instead.

"[Azerbaijan's] Shah Deniz II consortium informed OMV, as a shareholder of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International, about the decision on their preferred gas transportation route to Europe. The Nabucco West project was not selected by the consortium," it noted on its website.

Turkey Makes It Official With SCO

April 28, 2013 - 10:51am, by Joshua Kucera 

• The Bug Pit
 
• SCO
 
• Turkey

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and SCO Secretary General Dmitry Mezentsev sign an agreement on Turkey's accession to dialogue partner status in the SCO. (photo: MFA of Turkey)

Turkey has formally become a "dialogue partner" of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a step with unclear practical consequences but substantial symbolic import. Turkey is the first NATO member with any sort of formal relationship with the SCO, which is often represented an Eastern "anti-NATO." All the cliches about Turkey being "caught between East and West" -- here they are, codified in agreements with political-military blocs.

During the signing ceremony in Almaty on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu used some lofty rhetoric about his country's new partners, saying that Turkey "shares the same fate" as SCO member states: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. From Hurriyet Daily News:

“Now we declare that Turkey also shares the same fate as Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries.

We are thankful for being accepted as a member of this family,” Davutoğlu said. “This is only a start.

Maybe [it only seems like] a complementation of a process but [in fact] it is the start of a long way we will walk together hand by hand. This is our point of view on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and we will move in this direction,” he continued. Read the article.

Uzbekistan kicks US out of military base

Pentagon given six months to quit
The air base near the southern town of Khanabad, known as K2, was opened weeks after the September 11 attacks to provide vital logistical support for Operation Enduring Freedom in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Analysts have said that Uzbekistan agreed to the base, the first Pentagon presence in what is a former Soviet stronghold of central Asia, because of a large US aid package and Washington's silence about the country's appalling human rights record.

While the US talks about saving Afghanistan with a “New Silk Road,” China is actually doing it

For two years, the US State Department and the Pentagon have been incubating a plan to win the Afghan war without actually defeating the Taliban on the battleground. The idea is to triumph commercially by building a “New Silk Road”—a transportation-and-energy route to the West whose long-term financial dividends would prompt combatants to set aside their arms and get rich instead.

Now China is stepping up an apparent effort to outpace the US plan to reconstruct the ancient trade route.

The US idea is a network of roads, electric grids, rail, energy pipelines, and assorted commercial ventures along a channel leading from Afghanistan to the world at large. It would end up in Europe–ignoring China, Russia and Iran, the region’s biggest and most geopolitically assertive players.

Beijing’s less-ambitious version, by contrast, goes east, into China. It does not have a name, but it does appear to be actually materializing. – By Steve LeVine July 31, 2013