Category: Deals

BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), began in 2001 (South Africa was oddly added in 2010), purportedly representing the fastest emerging economies. BRICS has developed its own development bank and various forms of financial cooperation. They are also constructing a private telecommunications undersea cable network.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) also began in 2001 with six original members (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan). In 2017 they were joined by Pakistan and India, which means it covers 40% of the world’s population.

They cooperate economically and militarily. Keep in mind that India cleverly has a policy to be friends with everyone, so they are not expected to be loyal to anything.

The North South Transportation Corridor (NSTC) is a 7,200-km-long multi-mode network of ship, rail, and road route for moving freight between India, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia and Europe. Other routes under consideration include via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

While the routes are intended to increase international trade efficiency, they are also a private network if borders were closed to western nations.

Eurasian Economic Union. This organisation was formalized in 2015 and incorporates Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia, with Iran signing a free trade agreement in 2018.

Any or all of the above could be factors in an East/West schism.

A bilateral agreement signed July 2021 makes clear that cooperating on news coverage and narratives is a big goal for both governments. At a virtual summit that month, leading Russian and Chinese government and media figures discussed dozens of news products and cooperative ventures, including exchanging news content, trading digital media strategies, and co-producing television shows. The effort was led by Russia’s Ministry of Digital Development, Communication and Mass Media, and by China’s National Radio and Television Administration.

In the propaganda agreement, the two sides pledged to “further cooperate in the field of information exchange, promoting objective, comprehensive and accurate coverage of the most important world events.” They also laid out plans to cooperate on online and social media, a space that both countries have used to seed disinformation, pledging to strengthen “mutually beneficial cooperation in such issues as integration, the application of new technologies, and industry regulation.” 

The source is The Intercept.

It isn’t just that Russia and China are combining their disinformation efforts – which is all it can be, when you consider that real news needs no such planning – but also that it is going to be shared anti-West sentiments. This will further lead to a distancing between East and West

Pakistan has now received massive investment from both China and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi deal also includes the release of 2,000 Pakistani prisoners.

Being a memorandum of understanding means that the actual deals could fly under the radar later. Presumably the average Pakistani will not benefit in any way…

Khan welcomed Saudi investment in areas of oil refining, petrochemicals, energy and other sectors. “We have CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor), we have links with China. So we welcome Saudi Arabia to participate with us. It’s an exciting future,” the Pakistani prime minister said. 

CPEC is a package of infrastructure, energy and port-building projects Beijing is funding in Pakistan as part of its global Road and Belt Initiative. China has already invested $19 billion over the past five years and plans to invest billions more to construct industrial zones. 

Pakistan maintains strong political, cultural, economic and defense ties with Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Kingdom hosts more than 2.5 million Pakistani expatriates, and is a key source of oil supplies for Islamabad – on deferred payments, as well cash grants to help Pakistan’s often ailing economy.