Great Potential, Amidst Great Instabilities — We Are Not in Safe Waters Yet

Events of the hour show great potential— associated with the new paradigm of the new world Silk Road, but at the same time, great instabilities and dangers, associated with the persistence of monetarism, geopolitics, and attempted imperial dominance.

Yesterday President Donald Trump continued his stress on the significance of his Asia tour, in opening remarks to a meeting of his Cabinet. He spoke in terms of trade.

“We just returned from an historic 12-day trip to Asia. Everywhere we went, the American delegation was greeted with tremendous hospitality and tremendous respect… We brought back more than $300 billion worth of deals, which could reach well over a trillion dollars within a very near future. That means jobs for the United States at a very high level…”

Thereafter, Trump went on to meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley, amidst a number of situations posing great danger, and which cannot be resolved, except by the United States, and the trans-Atlantic region, joining the peace and development drive offered by the Belt and Road Initiative.

Saudi Arabia, in tandem with the United Kingdom, is beating the war drums for action against Iran and Hezbollah. On Sunday, at Saudi behest, a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers was held in Cairo. After many speakers denounced Iran, the decision was announced to brief the U.N. Security Council on charges against Iran, and perhaps demand future action. Meantime, the atrocities perpetrated by Saudi Arabia, assisted by the U.S. and Britain, continue in Yemen.

This awful situation should be seen against the opposite dynamics in Asia. In the Syrian crisis, Russia, Turkey, and Iran are collaborating to defeat ISIL in all its forms. On Nov. 22, Russian President Putin, Turkish President Erdogan, and Iranian President Rouhani will meet in Sochi, to discuss how to further bring stability to Syria and move toward the Russian-proposed Congress of National Dialogue. On Sunday, one of the last ISIL-held enclaves fell to the Syrian government, the town of Abu Kamal.

In South Asia, new initiatives are underway toward resolving the desperate situation in which over 600,000 Rohingya refugees are now in Bangladesh, having fled continuing strife in Myanmar. Over the weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Myanmar leaders met, announcing re-doubled efforts on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor of the Belt & Road Initiative, and discussing a three-part action plan, proposed by China, to deal with the emergency situation of the refugees: 1) a ceasefire; 2) terms to be determined by Bangladesh and Myanmar, for the refugees to go back home; and 3) poverty alleviation in Myanmar.

These two examples—Syria and Myanmar—show how major powers face crises, and confer to deliberately devise solutions. They mark an approach to reality which is either lacking, or is deliberately opposed, by most elites in Europe and in the United States right now, who are entrenched in the old, dead, geopolitical paradigm.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche yesterday pointed to the ongoing government crisis in Germany. Last night, the talks on forming a coalition government broke down when the Free Democratic Party pulled out. German Pres. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, after meeting with Caretaker Chancellor Angela Merkel, has called on all sides to re-think, saying, “We are faced with a situation which has not existed in the history of the Federal Republic…in almost 70 years.” Zepp-LaRouche, calling the situation, “Terrible, but not surprising,” pointed to the underlying problem: the leaders and party principals in Germany and Europe-wide, have no vision for the future. How are they going to re-think? They are “void of any ideas.” They live in a domain, parallel to reality, so they have no impetus to reconsider and change their axioms and have a discourse on actions.

This opens the way wide for what we are doing, to support a new era of benefit for mankind, but, as Zepp LaRouche cautions, “We’re not in safe waters yet.”