{"id":129253,"date":"2022-10-15T15:45:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T22:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=129253"},"modified":"2022-10-15T15:45:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T22:45:09","slug":"russia-courts-muslim-countries-as-strategic-eurasian-partners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2022\/10\/15\/russia-courts-muslim-countries-as-strategic-eurasian-partners\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Courts Muslim Countries as Strategic Eurasian Partners"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEPE ESCOBAR<\/a>\u00a0 Courtesy The Unz Review<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n


\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything that matters in the complex process of Eurasia integration was once again at play in Astana, as the \u2013 renamed \u2013 Kazakh capital hosted the 6th Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA)<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The roll call was a Eurasian thing of beauty \u2013 featuring the leaders of Russia and Belarus (EAEU), West Asia (Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Palestine) and Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China and Vietnam (East and Southeast Asia) attended at the level of vice presidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CICA is a multinational forum focused on cooperation toward peace, security, and stability across Asia.,Kazakh President Tokayev revealed that CICA has just adopted a declaration to turn the forum into an international organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CICA has already established a partnership with the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). So in practice, it will soon be working together side-by-side with the SCO, the EAEU and certainly BRICS+.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Russia-Iran strategic partnership was prominently featured at CICA, especially after Iran being welcomed to the SCO as a full member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Raeisi, addressing the forum, stressed the crucial notion of an emerging new Asia\u201d, where convergence and security\u201d are not compatible with the interests of hegemonic countries and any attempt to destabilize independent nations has goals and consequences beyond national geographies, and in fact, aims to target the stability and prosperity of regional countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Tehran, being a partner in the integration of CICA, within a maze of pan-Asia institutions, is essential after all these decades of\u201dmaximum pressure\u201d unleashed by the Hegemon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, it opens an opportunity, as Raeisi noted, for Iran to profit from Asia\u2019s economic infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian President Vladimir Putin, predictably, was the star of the show in Astana. It\u2019s essential to note that Putin is supported by all\u201dnations represented at CICA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-level bilaterals with Putin included the Emir of Qatar: everyone that matters in West Asia wants to talk to isolated\u201d Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Putin called for compensation for the damage caused to the Afghans during the years of occupation\u201d (we all know the Empire of Chaos, Lies and Plunder will refuse it), and emphasized the key role of the SCO to develop Afghanistan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stated that Asia, where new centers of power are growing stronger, plays a big role in the transition to a multipolar world order\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned, there is a real threat of famine and large-scale shocks against the backdrop of volatility in energy and food prices in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hefurther called for the end of a financial system that benefits the Golden billion\u201d \u2013 who live at the expense of others\u201d (there\u2019s nothing golden\u201d about this billion\u201d: at best such definition of wealth applies to 10 million.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he stressed that Russia is doing everything to form a system of equal and indivisible security\u201d. Exactly what drives the hegemonic imperial elites completely berserk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Offer you can\u2019t refuse\u201d bites the dust<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The imminent juxtaposition between CICA and the SCO and EAEU is yet another instance of how the pieces of the complex Eurasia jigsaw puzzle are coming together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey and Saudi Arabia \u2013 in theory, staunch imperial military allies \u2013 are itching to join the SCO, which has recently welcomed Iran as a full member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That spells out Ankara and Riyadh\u2019s geopolitical choice of forcefully eschewing the imperial Russophobia cum Sinophobia offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erdogan, as an observer at the recent SCO summit in Samarkand, sent out exactly this message. The SCO is fast reaching the point where we may have, sitting at the same table, and taking important consensual decisions, not only the RICs\u201d (Russia, India, China) in BRICS (soon to be expanded to BRICS+) but arguably the top players inMuslim countries: Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This evolving process, not without its serious challenges, testifies to the concerted Russia-China drive to incorporate the lands of Islam as essential strategic partners in forging the post-Western multipolar world. Call it a soft Islamization of multipolarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No wonder the Anglo-American axis is absolutely petrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now cut to a graphic illustration of all of the above \u2013 the way it\u2019s being played in the energy markets: the already legendary Opec+ meeting in Vienna a week ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tectonic geopolitical shift was inbuilt in the \u2013 collective \u2013 decision to slash oil production by 2 million barrels a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Saudi Foreign Ministry issued a very diplomatic note with a stunning piece of information for those equipped to read between the lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all practical purposes, the combo behind the teleprompter reader in Washington had issued a trademark Mafia threat to stop protection\u201d to Riyadh if the decision on the oil cuts was taken before the US mid-term elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only this time the offer you can\u2019t refuse\u201d didn\u2019t bite. OPEC+ made a collective decision, led by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Putin and MBS famously getting along, it was up to Putin to host UAE President Sheikh Zayed \u2013 or MBZ, MBS\u2019s mentor \u2013 at the stunning Konstantinovsky Palace in St. Petersburg, which datesback to Peter the Great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was a sort of informal celebration of how OPEC+ had provoked, with a single move, a superpower strategic debacle when it comes to the geopolitics of oil, which the Empire had controlled for a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone remembers, after the bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003, how US neo-cons bragged, we are the new OPEC\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, not anymore. And the move had to come from the Russians and US Persian Gulf allies\u201d when everyone expected that would happen the day a Chinese delegation lands in Riyadh and asks for payment of all the energy they need in yuan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPEC+ called the American bluff and left the superpower high\u2019n dry. So what are they going to do to punish\u201d Riyadh and Abu Dhabi? Call CENTCOM in Qatar and Bahrain to mobilize their aircraft carriers and unleash regime change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s certain is that the Straussian\/neocon psychos in charge in Washington will double down on hybrid war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The art of spreading instability\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In St. Petersburg, as he addressed MBZ, Putin made it clear that it\u2019s OPEC+ \u2013 led by Russia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE \u2013 that is now setting the pace to stabilize global energy markets\u201d so consumers and suppliers would feel calm, stable and confident\u201d and supply and demand would be balanced\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the gas front, at Russian Energy Week, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller made it clear that Russia may still save\u201d Europe from an energy black hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nord Stream (NS) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) may become operational: but all political roadblocks must be removed before any repairing work starts on the pipelines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on West Asia, Miller said additions to Turk Stream have already been planned, much to the delight of Ankara, keen to become a key energy hub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a parallel track, it\u2019s absolutely clear that the G7\u2019s desperate gambit of imposing an oil price cap \u2013 which translates as the weaponization of sanctions extended to the global energy market \u2013 is a losing proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Slightly over a month before hosting the G20 in Bali, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati could not make it clearer: When the United States is imposing sanctions using economic instruments, that creates a precedent for everything\u201d, spreading instability not only for Indonesia but for all other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, all Muslim-majority countries are paying very close attention to Russia. The Russia-Iran strategic partnership is now advancing in parallel to the Russia-Saudi-UAE entente as crucial vectors of multipolarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the near future, all these vectors are bound to unite in what ideally should be a supra-organization capable of managing the top story of the 21st<\/sup> century: Eurasia integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe Escobar is a veteran journalist, author and independent geopolitical analyst focused on Eurasia.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PEPE ESCOBAR\u00a0 Courtesy The Unz Review Everything that matters in the complex process of Eurasia integration was once again at play in Astana, as the \u2013 renamed \u2013 Kazakh capital hosted the 6th Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA). The roll call was a Eurasian thing of beauty \u2013 featuring the leaders of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}