Pepe Escobar: Russia, China, ASEAN Weave Their Eastern Magic

The stage was shared by President Putin; Vice-President of China Han Zheng; and Prime Minister of Malaysia Anwar Ibrahim.

That translates as Russia-China-ASEAN: a key interlocking partnership, constantly being strengthened, on the road to explore all the potential towards a new, equitable, fair, multi-nodal (italics mine) world.

In his address, President Putin focused on what is arguably the most ambitious national development project of the 21st century: the Russian Conquest of the East – a mirror image of the Chinese Conquest of the West that started in earnest in 1999, via the “Go West” campaign.

Putin detailed how the Russian Far East is fast developing, with more than 3,500 techno-industrial projects. He expanded on the Northern Sea Route (NSR) – the Chinese call it the Arctic Silk Road – with building of new nuclear icebreakers and the development of the port of Murmansk included. The NSR’s turnover, Putin remarked, is already a record five times bigger, and counting, when compared to the USSR times.

All the numbers concerning the Far East and the Arctic are staggering. The Far East is a strategic macro-region occupying no less than 41% of the territory of the Russian Federation. The Arctic, an immense natural resource treasure, linked to the NSR potential, occupies 28% - accounting for 17% of Russian oil production, 83% of gas production and holding immense deposits of gold, coal, nickel, copper, cobalt, platinum group metals and diamonds.

So it’s no wonder the recurrent Western colonialist dream of attacking, dismembering and plundering Russia – whose latest iteration is the obsession on inflicting a “strategic defeat” of Russia in Ukraine - is directly linked to grabbing and exploiting the infinite wealth of the Far East/Arctic.

Putin once again described how the two regions are “the future of Russia” – and a federal priority for the entire 21st century: in fact, a matter of national security. Investment growth in starting capital is already up by 20% - twice the Russian average; and each ruble of state funding is matched by 34 rubles of private investment. Key industries include energy, petrochemicals, mining, timber, logistics, aircraft/machinery/shipbuilding, agriculture and fisheries.

Malaysia’s Anwar, a first-class orator, expanded on ASEAN as a crossroads of Asia-Pacific and weaved an elegant analysis of soft power, complete with Russian literature (it’s his first time on Russian soil), stressing contributions at the “very fabric of human history and thought” and how Russia is “pointing the boundaries of possibility”.

In parallel he praised the rise of the Global South (40% of global GDP, over 85% of the population); the appeal of BRICS (Malaysia officially applied to join BRICS+); and how Russia should be attracting increasing “investment from Muslim-majority nations.” Playing on his culturally vibrant land, he reiterated, with a smile, the national motto: “Malaysia, truly Asia”.

Anwar particularly struck a nerve with the business/technocrat audience while commenting on the Gaza tragedy. He said that he always asks his colleagues, “even in the West”, where is “the humanity”; how do they dare to “speak of justice”; and how do they dare to predicate “human rights and democracy.”

Vice President Han Zheng stressed recent high-level meetings in Beijing and Astana strengthening the Russia-China strategic partnership; the increasing trade turnover; China’s status as the leading trade partner and investor in the Russian Far East; the drive to modernize trans-border structures; and President Xi’s Global Security Initiative – which is like a sort of more ambitious version of the Russian concept of Greater Eurasian Partnership.

Han Zheng made it quite clear how China takes a new comprehensive security format seriously, to “combat the mentality of the Cold War”. And it all comes back to the overarching Chinese concept for the whole 21st century: the attempt to build a “community of shared future for mankind.”

In practical terms, the forum – attended by 7,000 guests from 75 nations (very few from the West) – clinched 258 deals worth a significant 5.4 trillion rubles (over $59.7 billion).

A delightful highlight, just like last year, was an open-air exhibition, by the sea, featuring the culture, customs, cuisine and spectacular natural beauty of a wealth of regions, from Primorsky to Sakhalin, from Kamchatka to Sakha/Yakutia, from Buryatia to Krasnoyarsk.

All that soft power is integrated into the geopolitical and geoeconomic drive towards non-stop, sustainable economic growth - from Russia’s East to the entire Asia-Pacific; and addressed, for instance, at the evolving Russian-ASEAN business dialogue.

Indonesian military/security analyst Connie Bakrie, also a professor with the Faculty of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University, summed it all up: “The most important thing for Asia-Pacific is technology and science (…) President Putin underlined that Russia will play a very big part in building science and technology together [across Asia], especially in the nuclear aspect of energy security.”

Several sessions spread out across the forum were prodigies of integration. It’s not always that on a discussion about education systems in APEC economies, it’s possible to have Evgeny Vlasov, vice-rector of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) – on which sprawling, ultra-modern campus the forum takes place – debating with Yu Miaojie, rector of the first-class Liaoning University in Hong Kong.

On the so-called Eastern Polygon the debate, attended by top Putin adviser Igor Levitin, was on geoeconomics shifting to Asia-Pacific, with the Far East becoming an absolutely key gateway for foreign trade.

On the Russian-ASEAN session , including a minister from the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), much was elaborated on the five years since the start of the Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership, and how Moscow regards the Asia-Pacific, and particularly ASEAN, as a top priority.

A counterpart session examined cooperation across Greater Eurasia - centered on the development of production chains integrating EAEU, SCO and BRICS.

Karin Kneissl, head of the GORKI Center (Geopolitical Observatory on Key Issues of Russia) at the St. Petersburg State University and former Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, represented once again the (few) remaining voices of sanity in Europe: she stressed how “the rule of law is disappearing in Europe” and how “trust in the traditional system is gone.”

Hence the importance of the BRICS forum: “What is needed is a new normative foundation.”

A fascinating, timely discussion developed under the theme “Instruments of Sovereign Development in the Context of the Destabilization of the World Order”, with an incisive input by Albert Bakhtizin, the director of Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

A group of Russian scientists, with input from the Chinese, has developed a National Strength Index, which takes into account variables such as population size, natural resource reserves, military power, the strength of the economy, the solidity of government, business, and society when it comes to achieving national development goals. It’s all, of course, about sovereignty.

The multipolar debate was one of the highlights of the forum.

Host Alexander Dugin was adamant: Russia is a Pacific nation. On stage, among others, there was the irrepressible Maria Zakharova; the Indian ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar; the author of the concept of civilization-state, Professor Zhang Weiwei of Fudan University; Indonesian analyst Connie Bakrie; former Prime Minister of Nepal, Madzav Kumar; top-class French geopolitician Aymeric Chauprade; plus several ASEAN scholars and analysts in the audience.

The consensus was that the unilateral international “order” based on “rules” that the collective West changes at will should be on the way out. That is directly connected to the geopolitical center of gravity moving to the Asia-Pacific.

Prof. Zhang Weiwei offered a concise explanation of the Chinese way, based on “three structures”.

On the political structure, “China is fiercely independent. And ASEAN is constantly autonomous, refusing to take sides.”

On the economic structure, improving people’s living standards – or “people’s livelihood first”, in Chinese – is Beijing’s top priority.

ASEAN, meanwhile, is China’s largest trading partner. By its

geographical structure, “it’s very vulnerable, sometimes called the Balkans of Asia.” But it shines as a model of integration.

On the cultural structure, Prof. Weiwei stressed “the Asian way.”

That is, “we can afford to agree to disagree.” That’s how China “supports ASEAN’s independence”.

The Eastern Economic Forum once again showed, in spades, how Russia and a collection of Asian civilizational-states remain cool, calm and collected, resolutely striding forward, even as a hybrid Totalen Krieg which can escalate in a flash to nuclear war is being waged by the Hegemon and its vassals against Russia and ultimately, against the BRICS.

Even as US Think Tankland ceaselessly comes up with warmongering schemes - the latest is the advent of a NATO “Arctic Sparta” to try to contain “the end of American Exceptionalism” in the High North – the new socioeconomic connections explored at the forum,and the consequential new stability and resilience, are even more significant game-changers than the military-moral debacles in Gaza and in the black soil of Novorossiya.

It's no wonder that the Hegemon plutocracy and its lowly vassals froth in unmitigated hate at being totally outclassed and outwitted by Russia, China, Asia and Eurasia, eventually destined to wallow in the gutters of irrelevancy.