The G20 is dead. Long live the G20

Friday, 19 November 2022 — Indian Punchline

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

US president Joe Biden (R) and Chinese president Xi Jinping met at Bali, Nov 14, 2022. Biden said they discussed their responsibility to prevent competition and find ways to work together.

The seventeenth G20 Heads of State and Government Summit held in Bali, Indonesia, on 15–16 November stands out as a consequential event from many angles. The international politics is at an inflection point and the transition will not leave unaffected any of the institutions inherited from the past that is drifting away forever.

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Goodbye G20, Hello BRICS+

Thursday, 17 November 2022 — Internationalist 360°

Pepe Escobar

https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/G7-2.jpg

The increasingly irrelevant G20 Summit concluded with sure signs that BRICS+ will be the way forward for Global South cooperation.

The redeeming quality of a tense G20 held in Bali – otherwise managed by laudable Indonesian graciousness – was to sharply define which way the geopolitical winds are blowing.

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Going to Samarkand

Saturday, 30 July 2022 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Pepe Escobar

The SCO and other pan-Eurasian organizations play a completely different – respectful, consensual – ball game. And that’s why they are catching the full attention of most of the Global South.

The meeting of the SCO Ministerial Council  in Tashkent this past Friday involved some very serious business. That was the key preparatory reunion previous to the SCO summit in mid-September in fabled Samarkand, where the SCO will release a much-awaited “Declaration of Samarkand”.

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Russia and China Haven’t Even Started to Ratchet Up the Pain Dial

Wednesday, 13 July 2022 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Pepe Escobar

The Suicide Spectacular Summer Show, currently on screen across Europe, proceeds in full regalia.

The Suicide Spectacular Summer Show, currently on screen across Europe, proceeds in full regalia, much to the astonishment of virtually the whole Global South: a trashy, woke Gotterdammerung remake, with Wagnerian grandeur replaced by twerking.

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India, BRICS in cold war conditions

Saturday, 2 July 2022 — Indian Punchline

The phone conversation on Friday between Prime Minister Modi and Russian President Putin conveyed a big signal, coming on the morrow of the release of the new Strategic Concept by NATO which called Russia the alliance’s “most significant and direct threat.” The readouts from Moscow and New Delhi both highlighted the two leaderships’ determination to carry forward the momentum of economic cooperation despite the western sanctions against Russia. (here and here)

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St. Petersburg sets the stage for the War of Economic Corridors

Saturday, 18 June 2022 — The Cradle

In St. Petersburg, the world’s new powers gather to upend the US-concocted “rules-based order” and reconnect the globe their way
https://media.thecradle.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IMG-20220618-WA0016.jpgAt St. Petersburg on Friday, backers of multipolarity pushed forward integration of their networks * Photo Credit: The Cradle

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum  has been configured for years now as absolutely essential to understand the evolving dynamics and the trials and tribulations of Eurasia integration.

St. Petersburg in 2022 is even more crucial as it directly connects to three simultaneous developments I had previously outlined, in no particular order:

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China and Russia declare ‘new era’ of multipolarity, challenging US interventionism

Monday, 7 February 2022 — Multipolarista

After meeting in Beijing, China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin released a joint statement clarifying the ideological divisions of the new cold war: Eurasian calls for multipolarity, cooperation, sovereignty, and “redistribution of power in the world” against US unipolar hegemony and interventionism.

Xi Putin China Russia Beijing olympicsRussian President Vladimir Putin with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bejing on February 4, 2022 (Photo credit: Xinhua)

(Se puede leer este artículo en español aquí.)


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Insights on the Iran deal, BRICS and handling a crisis in Venezuela By Pepe Escobar

28 January 2019 — Asia Times

An exclusive interview with former Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim on how BRICS came into being, how the nuclear deal was done with Tehran and how the South dealt with Chavez

Former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim: 'When President Trump says all options are on the table, that is very dangerous.' Photo: AFP

Former Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim: ‘When President Trump says all options are on the table, that is very dangerous.’ Photo: AFP

Brazil is once again in the eye of a political hurricane, after President Jair Bolsonaro’s appearance at Davos and explosive revelations directly linking his clan to a criminal organization in Rio de Janeiro.

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Washington is Determined to Bring Ankara to Heel By Martin Berger

5 October 2018 — NEO

Over the last six decades, Turkey and the United States have grown into strategic partners and NATO allies. Both countries wouldfaced similarchallenges bothduring the days of theCold War and after them. However, in spite ofthe fact that Turkey and the United States remain a pivotal component of the North Atlantic Treaty Organizations, it won’t be an exaggeration to state that their relations have seen better times.

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BRICS Summit in South Africa, U.S. Trade War Escalates: Selected Articles

2 August 2018 — Global Research News

BRICS Summit Held in South Africa While U.S. Trade War Escalates

By Abayomi Azikiwe, August 02, 2018

Republic of South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa hosted the 10th BRICS Summit where strong opposition to the burgeoning trade and currency wars initiated by the United States administration of President Donald Trump was assailed. Continue reading

Cyril Ramaphosa relaunches neo-liberalism By Prof. Patrick Bond

23 February 2018 — Pambazuka News

After Jacob Zuma’s firing, South Africa risks budget austerity and even renewed BRICS “poisoning”. 

Cyril Ramaphosa’s soft-coup firing of Jacob Zuma from the South African presidency on 14 February 2018, after nearly nine years in power and a bitter struggle to avoid resignation, has contradictory local and geopolitical implications. Amidst general applause at seeing Zuma’s rear end in the society, immediately concerns arise about the new president’s neo-liberal, pro-corporate tendencies, and indeed his legacy of financial corruption and class war against workers given the lack of closure on the 2012 Marikana Massacre.

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Ukraine Crisis Accelerating the Restructuring of the World By Pierre Charasse

30 April 2014 — Voltaire Network

The Ukrainian crisis has not radically changed the international situation but it has precipitated ongoing developments. Western propaganda, which has never been stronger, especially hides the reality of Western decline to the populations of NATO, but has no further effect on political reality. Inexorably, Russia and China, assisted by the other BRICS, occupy their rightful place in international relations.

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China and the multipolar world By Roman Pogorelov

8 April 2014 — New Eastern Outlook 

NEO 25There is every reason to believe that the growing confrontation between the West and Russia, which resulted in a conflict around Ukraine and Crimea, is an important milestone, marking a new stage in the struggle for the future world order. Moreover, the way the future will look, largely depends on China’s position in the international arena.

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Obama in South Africa: Washington tells Pretoria how to ‘play the game’ in Africa By Patrick Bond

1 July, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

US President Barack Barack Obama’s weekend trip to South Africa may have the desired effect of slowing the geopolitical realignment of Pretoria to the Brazil-India-Russia-China-South Africa (BRICS) axis. That shift to BRICS has not, however, meant deviation from the hosts’ political philosophy, best understood as “talk left, walk right” since it mixes anti-imperialist rhetoric with pro-corporate policies. Continue reading

Obama in South Africa: Washington tells Pretoria how to ‘play the game’ in Africa By Patrick Bond

1 July, 2013 – Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal

US President Barack Barack Obama’s weekend trip to South Africa may have the desired effect of slowing the geopolitical realignment of Pretoria to the Brazil-India-Russia-China-South Africa (BRICS) axis. That shift to BRICS has not, however, meant deviation from the hosts’ political philosophy, best understood as “talk left, walk right” since it mixes anti-imperialist rhetoric with pro-corporate policies. Continue reading

New at Strategic Culture Foundation 2-8 June 2013: Iran / Gold / Afghanistan-Pakistan / India-Nukes / Brics / Finland / Russia

8 June 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Hydropolitics Propel Balkanization

08.06.2013 | 00:00 | Wayne MADSEN

Wherever there are reports of melting glaciers and a future of diminished water resources, there is an increasing Balkanization of nation-states. Those who manipulate world events for maximum profit understand that it is much easier to control water resources if one is dealing with a multitude of warring and jealous mini-states than it is to deal with a regional power… Continue reading

The interview given by the President Bashar al-Assad To the turkish Ulusal TV station and Aydinlik newspaper by Bashar al-Assad

5 April 2013 — Voltaire Network

Question: Mr President, you are welcome on Ulusal TV station. My first question might be a bit strange, but I need to ask it, because in the Turkish and world media there has been a lot of information published to the effect that you were killed or that you have left the country. Can you confirm that you are still alive and still in Syria?

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New at Strategic Culture Foundation 31 March – 6 April 2013: Bulgaria / South Stream / Middle East / Central African Republic / Korea / Chiina & Brics / Venezuela

6 April 2013 — Strategic Culture Foundation

Bulgaria: The Phenomenon of Self-Immolation

06.04.2013 | 00:00 | Georgy KOLAROV

There is little more than a month left for the protest movement currently gathering momentum in Bulgaria to climax before the parliamentary elections set for 12 May take place. An outburst of public activity can also be expected the very next day… The phenomenon of self-immolation is completely new for Bulgaria. However, an epidemic of self-immolations and the glorification of its victims on the Internet played its role in the fervour of the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt. As is well-known, the motive for self-destruction was included as point 158 by Gene Sharp back in 1973 – «Self-exposure to the elements (self-immolation, drowning etc.)»… – as a way to move «from a dictatorship to a democracy»… 

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