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Title: New World Relationships Author: Noam Chomsky Date: March 10, 2006 Language: en Topics: Asia, Latin America Source: Retrieved on 1st October 2021 from https://www.khaleejtimes.com/article/20060310/ARTICLE/303109971/1098 Notes: Published in the 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 21^(st) 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.