Kontrasten kunne ikke have været større. Alt imens den dysfunktionelle natur af det døende G7, eller G6, eller G5 (!) – et levn af britisk geopolitik, som har domineret efterkrigstidens politik – blev totalt udstillet i Canada, gik et alternativt, globalt system fremefter i Qingdao, Kina, med Shanghai Samarbejdsorganisationens (SCO) møde, baseret på Kinas Nye Silkevejspolitiks »win-win«-livssyn. Og, alt imens de destabiliserede ledere af det i stigende grad irrelevante G7 blev ladt tilbage til at jamre over, at præsident Trump forlod dem – i både figurativ og bogstavelig betydning – så var Trumps ekstraordinære topmøde med Nordkoreas leder Kim Jong-un et spejlbillede af hans orientering mod Eurasien, da mødets succes til dels skyldes hans samarbejde med ledere fra Kina, Rusland, Sydkorea og Japan.
Og hvad ved folk, der lever i det transatlantiske område, om denne nye, eurasiske dynamik, der er i færd med at forme fremtiden? Desværre, eftersom de fleste af de valgte repræsentanter for Vestens »gængse«, politiske partier fortsætter med at handle i den geopolitiske doktrins interesse, som skabtes af Det britiske Imperium, og medierne udspyr ’fake news’ for at bakke det op, så er kun ganske få bevidste om virkeligheden med den store, globale transformation, der er i gang.
Hver uge giver Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Schiller Instituttets stifter, en kortfattet og dramatisk præsentation, der er tænkt at skulle sætte hendes seere på historiens scene. I disse ugentlige webcasts har hun leveret både en gennemgang af begivenhederne, fra toppen og ned, og også en analysemetode, der giver hendes seere en mulighed for at spille en rolle i denne transformation. Gå ikke glip af hendes præsentation i denne uge – og sørg for at informere så mange andre som muligt om, at dette er deres mulighed for at bryde ud af boblen af løgne og misinformationer, så de kan blive smittet med den Nye Silkevejsånd.
Engelsk udskrift:
Schiller Institute New Paradigm Webcast, June 14, 2018
With Helga Zepp-LaRouche
Trump and His Eurasian Allies Outflank the Dying British Empire
HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello I’m Harley Schlanger with the
Schiller Institute. Welcome to this week’s webcast with our
founder and President Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
At the end of last year, at the end of 2017, Helga forecast
that 2018 will be the year in which the era of geopolitics is
ended. I think the developments of the last week have been a
major step toward that actually coming into fruition, with the
extraordinary summit which took place in Singapore between
President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-un of North Korea, as well
as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China. And
then, with the collapse of the old order, with the G7, or G6 or
G-whatever in Canada.
So Helga, why don’t we start with the developments that took
place in Singapore, because these were earthshaking and worthy of
being the first topic of our discussion today.
HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I’m actually quite pleased to tell
you, and you may know it already or not, that two Norwegian
parliamentarians have proposed to award the Nobel Peace Prize
for President Trump. Now, I find this very appropriate, in
contrast to the Nobel Peace Prize being given to Obama for
absolutely nothing, just the contrary. But I think this
development of North Korea and the United States finding a way to
completely transform an old adversary relationship into one of
cooperation and a bright future, I think this is really a
fantastic development. And I know that all the mainstream media
of the West are having apoplectic attacks over this, but if you
look at it, I think it is absolutely promising.
First of all, the facts you all know: They agreed on the
complete denuclearization of North Korea, in return for the
prospect of making North Korea a prosperous and wealthy country.
Now, I find it very interesting that the White House,
between Trump and the National Security Council produced a
four-minute video, where the two options for North Korea were
portrayed: One is the old status and war, or to have a complete
modernization of the country, with modern railway — they even
showed the Chinese maglev running, and people prosperous and
productive. I think this was very good, because this video is
exactly what will happen, and it goes very far beyond a similar
video which was produced by South Korea in the past. Trump
showed it to Kim Jong-un in the meetings, and then he also showed
it before giving his press conference.
I watched his entire press conference, and I must say, I
would advise all of you, our viewers, to do likewise. Because you
hear so much about Trump being this and that, and the way he
conducted himself in this lengthy press conference, fencing off
the most typical, old-fashioned thinking, questions from mainly
American journalists, he did not let himself be provoked — you
know, journalists try to ask him, “what will you do, what is you
punishment if North Korea does not comply?” but he wouldn’t go
into this trap; but he just said that he was very confident that
this process was on a good way.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0BWMd1R7wE]
And very important was that he also announced that the
United States would stop what he called the “war games,” the
U.S.-South Korea military maneuvers, and obviously, this is
psychologically very important for the North Koreans, because if
you have these war games on your door step all the time, this
creates a permanent psychological terror.
People who have to still form their judgment about how to
look at this, they should just consider that the South Korean
people were absolutely enthusiastic. They were happy in the
streets. President Moon who watched the live stream coming from
the conference from Singapore, applauded several times. And given
the fact that the German unification which took place now almost
29 years ago, people in Germany may remember the absolute
jubilance and happiness of families hugging each other, who
haven’t been together for very many years; friends falling into
each other’s arms, and kissing each other. And it was a joy!
That the German unification did not produce only happiness
afterwards had to do with the larger geostrategic environment:
You know, like Bush, and Thatcher and Mitterrand, they all were
extremely hostile to the process of German unification, and
therefore the east German states were practically economically
dismantled, pretty much. And the environment in North Korea is
obviously completely different.
So I would like to just say that I’m very optimistic that
this process will succeed, for the very simple reason that this
is taking place in a completely different strategic context,
namely of the Belt and Road Initiative, the integration of the
Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian Economic Union, and
these kinds of economic development plans, which also Russia
spoke about and China said they would contribute, and also
together with the United States take over security guarantees for
North Korea, these economic plans take place in the context of
the intention to develop the Far East of Russia, to integrate it
with all of Asia, which was discussed at the Eastern Economic
Forum in Vladivostok last September, and it was also discussed in
the inter-Korean dialogue in April between the two presidents of
the two Koreas.
So I think the perspective that North Korea, soon, will be
integrated into the Eurasian transport system, the two railways
connecting to the Trans-Siberian Railway, to the Chinese railway
system, and that you will have a complete transformation of this
part of the world. And I think Trump is absolutely right: He
said the past does not determine the future. Real change is
possible. And I think this is a very good development, and all
the nay-sayers they should just go home and think.
SCHLANGER: The point you just made I think was one of the
most important: That both presidents talked about overcoming the
past. And Kim Jong-un said that we need to develop a new
friendly attitude between our peoples, as opposed to the animus.
And of course, that’s what Trump has displayed in both the
lead-up to the summit and in the aftermath of the summit. And
this is one of the things that angering the people you mentioned
that aren’t happy about this: The fact that he’s saying, look
this is a new period, it’s a new time.
And I think, Helga, this probably the most important thing,
this idea of entering into a new era. And this is, of course,
what you’ve been talking about for the last years, and we now are
on the verge of a new emergence of a Eurasian Century.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. I think that spirit is clearly
prevalent in Asia. It was also the expressed view of Chinese
Foreign Minister Wang Yi after the SCO summit Qingdao in China.
This summit was an extraordinary milestone, where Wang Yi
afterwards said, the SCO represents 3.1 billion people, and it is
already now a completely new system of international relations,
built on mutual trust, on cooperation, on friendship, on common
aims, and it is a new model, that leaves behind and transcends
the old geopolitical order, Cold War, exclusive clubs, clash of
civilizations — all of these are left behind, and a new era of
cooperation has been established.
This was very beautiful, because the summit, the initial
banquet was opened by President Xi Jinping with a reference to
Confucius. He said Qingdao is in Shandong province, which is the
home of the Confucius and Confucianism and he should guide the
future of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Now, I think Xi Jinping is a philosopher and just contrast
that — can you imagine that any European leader would open an EU
summit with the words “we should have Plato’s spirit, or
Shakespeare’s spirit, or Schiller’s spirit guide the future of
the European Union”? Nothing is more impossible to think than
that at this moment.
So, I think the future lies in Asia. And the kind of
cooperation and determination to create a better world for all
people living on this planet is being realized in Asia right now.
And I think it was very good thing that President Trump is
definitely helping the best he can to make this order succeed,
despite the trade tensions and despite the remaining problems
which are still there. I’m absolutely confident that the spirit
and the dynamic of this new phenomenon, these new forces which
Wang Yi spoke, he said, there are new forces at work which make
this all possible, and I think that that is the dynamic of our
time, the trend of our time. And it’s a good thing. It’s
wonderful and everybody who loves humanity and who loves peace
should be absolutely happy.
SCHLANGER: I knew what would make you happy in particular
is that it wasn’t just a discussion of trade deals or security
concerns, but the Shanghai Cooperation Organization did take
place on a philosophical level. And this is spilling over into
the talks between President Trump and the North Korean President,
for precisely the reason that the other countries are involved in
the Korean summit, and President Trump made a point to thank
China, Japan, South Korea, and Russia.
Helga, I think there may be a couple more things you want to
bring up on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting: India
and Pakistan participated — this really has become something in
big contrast to the morose gathering that took place in Canada,
the declining G7. Why don’t you give us your thoughts on that,
the difference between these two summits?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: The SCO summit is the result of a conscious
effort to create a more human world, and I really think that the
fact that — as we discussed it already on this show — Modi and
Xi Jinping have reset the policy between India and China; that
Pakistan and India, under the umbrella of the SCO, can now talk
about issues, is a wonderful development as well. The whole
dynamic is one of cooperation, mutual trust, and how countries
should relate to each other: That is a normal thing.
As a matter of fact, many years, 34 years ago, I created the
Schiller Institute, with the idea that we need a new foreign
policy, that nations should relate to the best tradition of each
other, and not the worst. And that is what I see now. You have
a deep discussion about the fundamental principles of each
culture. In China, you have Confucius and Mencius, which were
both mentioned by Xi Jinping; in India, you have the Vedic
tradition, the Gupta period, you have the Indian Renaissance —
much of this was referred to by Modi in his previous speech at
the [June 1-3] Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore which took place
just a little bit before.
You have on the side of these leaders an understanding that
you have to look for the most profound image of man in the
respective culture, and what follows for politics out of that.
Out of Confucius, the ideal of eternal learning, of lifelong
learning and character improvement comes the harmony in the
family. And out of harmonious families comes harmony in the
nation, and among nations as well. And there are similar ideas
in the idea of a cosmic order in the Indian philosophy, which
should guide our behavior on the planet. And you have the idea
of {ahimsa}, that man has to educate himself up to the point
where he is incapable of having any harmful thought.
Now, this happens to be the same idea like you find Nikolaus
of Cusa, or Leibniz or Schiller — Schiller’s conception of the
beautiful soul — but naturally, that kind of thinking is
completely absent in the Western world right now, in the G7 or G6
against 1, or G4. Because, actually the G4, there are only four
countries left which are absolutely determined to keep the
sanctions against Russia and similar things: Germany, France,
Great Britain and Canada, so it’s not exactly a strong alliance.
The contrast between the SCO meeting and the really
catastrophic failure of the G7 meeting in Canada could not be
more obvious. And I think the fact that they can only be
negative, and are also having huge fights among themselves is a
reflection that this old order is collapsing, and it’s collapsing
very fast, and one big area where you can see that is the refugee
crisis in Europe, which has come back in full force.
SCHLANGER: How significant is it do you think that
President Trump brought up bringing Russia back into the G7 to
make it the G8 again?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, you know, Putin was very funny: He
said he would invite the next G7 meeting to Moscow. But I don’t
think they are naturally putting a huge priority of being part of
something which is clearly not the most dynamic model in the
world. And I think much more important is the orientation
towards Asia for Russia at this point.
Foreign Minister Lavrov made an important point after the
Singapore meeting: He said, in order to really guarantee that
this process succeeds, one has to bring back the six power talks,
which involves the two Koreas, Japan, China, the United States,
and Russia. And I think that that is absolutely to the point.
I think that the whole situation will change because you
have now complete disunity in Europe. You have two new
governments, which are absolutely in favor of restoring relations
with Russia. One is Austria, which just hosted a very important
summit for President Putin; and the other one is the new Italian
government, where Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini just came
out and called for an alliance with Russia to fight terrorism,
and saying basically that you cannot deal with extremism of all
forms unless you cooperate with Russia.
So this is all changing very rapidly, and I wouldn’t be
surprised if things get really turbulent in Europe much, much
more, and changes will occur, and one can only hope that they go
in the direction of cooperating with the New Silk Road and not
just in the direction of chaos, which is also an imminent
possibility.
SCHLANGER: You mentioned the refugee crisis which is once
again back on the front burner, even though it’s not the same
numbers as a couple of years ago. What’s happening with this?
How has this become an issue once again?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: First of all, there are many refugees,
because the weather was bad for some time; now it’s better so a
lot of refugees are just lined up and waiting to be put by human
traffickers in these boats. One ship, the {Aquarius}, just was
refused to enter a port in Italy; then there was a huge brawl,
because Macron attacked the Italian government because of it.
And then the Italians answered about the high horse Macron was
sitting on, given the fact that they had had terrible treatment
of tens of thousands of refugees over the years. Finally, Macron
and Italian Prime Minister Conte talked on the telephone, and a
state visit will occur on Friday, so we have to see how that
goes. And the refugees were finally accepted by the new Spanish
government of Sánchez government.
But, what happens when the next ship comes? So this crisis,
this has now led to a huge crisis in the coalition government in
Germany; where Interior Minister Horst Seehofer [CSU] and former
Bavarian minister President, wanted to present his master plan.
Merkel basically forbid him to, whereupon Seehofer and Chancellor
Kurz from Austria, and Salvini from Italy all got on the
telephone, and Kurz was talking about a “coalition of the
willing” to agree to basically send refugees back at the border,
if they’re already registered in any one European country. And
Merkel, on the other side, together with the SPD, wants to find a
European solution.
This has created a complete turmoil, because only three
members of parliament of Merkel’s own CDU party are backing her.
The SPD, on the other side, says, if Merkel capitulates to
Seehofer, they may even go for a vote of confidence and new
elections. So this is highly unstable, and I cannot see how
either of these solutions should function. Because if you close
the borders — that’s what they want, to make a “Fortress
Europe,” to increase the coast guard, to make sure that no
refugees can come in; if you close the internal EU borders, there
goes the Schengen agreement, and that was the basis on which the
euro actually was possible, because if you don’t have open
borders within Europe, a common currency doesn’t make sense.
So I think this thing could explode at any moment, and all
of these ideas are unworkable, and are a reflection of these fact
that these establishments just don’t understand that the only way
how you can solve the refugee crisis in a human way, would be a
large-scale development of Africa. And China is doing that
already, so if the European governments would be intelligent,
they would just say: We’ll take the offer of China to cooperate
in large-scale infrastructure and other development plans for
Africa so that we can create an incentive that all the young
people from Africa will want to stay home and build their
countries, rather than risking their lives by crossing the Sahara
and dying of thirst, or crossing the Mediterranean and drowning.
So you know, you have to change the policy towards Africa if
you want to solve this problem.
SCHLANGER: And Helga, on that note, it does appear there
are people in the Italian government who are making that point.
One of the new ministers, Prof. Michele Geraci has a document
out where he talks about this idea of Italy and other European
countries working with China to provide the infrastructure and
create the means by which people can stay in their homes and
actually have a future.
What else do you see in the emergence of this new Italian
government as a positive part of the transformation of Europe?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: There was first the appointment of
ministers, several of whom have very decent positions on
Glass-Steagall, on the creation of a national bank, on
renegotiating the Maastricht Treaty conditions to not accept the
austerity but going for an investment program. So there are many
interesting points. They’re not completely unproblematic,
because there are also many greenie ideas in it.
But now, the second round of people have been appointed in
the positions undersecretary in ministries, and there you have —
I don’t know the total number — but something between 6, 8, or
10 of them who have signed an appeal by our sister organization
in Italy, the Movisol, for Glass-Steagall — a letter to
President Trump for him to implement Glass-Steagall.
So I expect that given the fact that the financial system is
in a very precarious condition, that once this government
consolidates, which it is in the process of doing right now, that
you will see a lot more motion towards Glass-Steagall.
Now, Glass-Steagall and the laws of the European Union are
incompatible. But it’s a very promising development, and one
reflection that good things are going on, is the fact that the EU
representative for the negotiation of the Brexit, former Belgian
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt just came out with a huge attack,
saying the following people are stooges of Putin — [U.K.
Independence Party leader] Nigel Farage, Le Pen, Salvini, and
[Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban. There are already some
people now suing him, and you cannot just claim that somebody is
a stooge and paid agent, when they are not.
I mean, you can see the freakout level is really quite big.
But I think the potential is also there, given the fact that
there is a motion towards cooperation with Russia coming from
several places in Europe, now. And there is also a softening,
and some people are reviewing and saying: Look, there is the
biggest infrastructure development in history which is already
writing the rules. The new WTO will be written by the New Silk
Road. Why not join it, and profit from all of these
developments? And the hidden champions in European Mittelstand
and so forth, they have so much to contribute to solve the
problems of this world, that rather than making a Fortress
Europe, and trying to keep every foreigner out, we should just
really change the policy.
And I think the time has come where all these arrogant
people, who think they are the best and the brightest, when in
reality, they are not so smart at all, and they don’t what to
acknowledge that the neo-liberal, neo-con, geopolitical system is
just going under. It’s going under because it favors only an
elite, a financial elite, an establishment, and it is harmful to
the majority of the people. And therefore, the model of the New
Silk Road, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization model, the BRICS
model, all of these are more attractive, especially to the
developing countries. And the West would just do so much better
if they would say, “OK, we have to rethink, and maybe we can
reinvent ourselves if we cooperate with this new dynamic.”
The breakthrough of Singapore has created an example that
you can do it! You can change history if you want and if you
have the will and if you have the good intention. And I think
people should follow this example.
SCHLANGER: There’s one other place where change is needed,
and that is the continuing war on the people of Yemen coming from
the Saudi Arabian government, the United Arab Emirates — with
some support from the United States and the United Kingdom.
There’s a battle that’s underway right now for the city of
Hodeidah, where there was a bombing of a Doctors Without Borders
hospital. This is the port where most of the food comes into the
country, and it’s already a country where 60% of the people are
food insecure.
Helga, what can be done? There are some Congressmen who
signed a letter calling for an immediate move for an
Authorization for the Use of Military Forces (AUMF) with the idea
being that the United States {would not} participate in this, but
move to stop it.
This is something that also needs to be brought also before
the population of the world, isn’t it?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes. Already before this bombing against
Hodeidah started, Yemen was characterized by the United Nations
as the worst humanitarian catastrophe on the planet, and the
Russian Foreign Ministry just commented on the fact that the
bombing against this port has started, saying that this will make
a political solution that much harder.
But there is one country right now, which really could stop
it, and that is the United States. If the United States would
just make sure Saudi Arabia does not have the means to continue
this, it would! And I find it promising that even two members of
the Israeli Knesset, the parliament, basically commented on the
Singapore summit by saying that this could be a model to solve
the Middle East crisis, including the conflict between Saudi
Arabia and Iran.
Now, that is the way to go. I think military solutions just
don’t function. And we have to — when I said at the beginning
of the year that geopolitics must be overcome, because
geopolitics is the basis of war. In the last century, it was the
basis of two world wars, and I think we have to come to a
situation where, given the fact that nuclear weapons exist, which
could lead to the annihilation of civilization, I think we have
to move to a world where war is absolutely outlawed as a means of
conflict resolution.
This is why I think now, with this changed dynamic, a summit
between President Trump and President Putin, is of the absolute
urgency and should follow. I know that the spokesman of the
State Department basically said that both sides are looking at
it, and looking at preparations — but I think it’s very urgent.
And I think this idea that Middle East must find a similar
approach to the Korea situation, is absolutely to the point.
SCHLANGER: Well, on that point, I’d like to finish by
asking you to say something about this wonderful conference that
the Schiller Institute sponsored this last weekend in New York
City, under the theme “Dona Nobis Pacem.” You participated in
it. What are your thoughts about how this kind of event points
the way to this change as well, with the New Silk Road Spirit
taking over?
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I think it was a quite successful
conference. There was a student meeting on Friday, with U.S.
students for the New Silk Road. And then we had on Saturday a
very important conference where we had the deputy ambassador to
the United Nations from the Russian mission, who I think was very
important for people to see, that these Russians are not the way
the {New York Times} describes them, but they are human beings
who are funny and have a lot to give. And then we had a lot of
strategic discussion over the day.
And then the next day, we had a beautiful concert, with
African American Spirituals and then the Beethoven Mass in C
Major, which was performed by the chorus of the Schiller
Institute. And the church where the concert took place was
completely full, and people were really inspired, and understand
that you need Classical culture to elevate people to bring out
the most noble aspect of humanity. And in that spirit, you can
solve any problem.
So I would like to ask you, again: join the Schiller
Institute, become part of the Renaissance movement, and help us
to bring the Silk Road Spirit; or as they were saying, in the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, the “Shanghai Spirit”
which is really the spirit of Confucius, and Mencius, and
Schiller, and Leibniz — bring this spirit to the Western world,
because we can only all profit from it.
SCHLANGER: With that, I think we’ll conclude. Helga, thank
you very much and we’ll see you next week.
ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, till next week.