Re: Everyone seems to be jockeying for positions here (and elsewhere), a la pre-WWI Europe.
Except that in pre-WWI Europe the Chinese were rather negligible.... I've read an article highlighting a Turkmenistan-China partnership to supply China with oil and gas... This Shanghai Forum will likely gain momentum in the next few years. Besides, Israel is already carving out a foothold in the region (via its Mossad agent Yosef Maiman, currently messing around in Turkmenistan... Yaacov, please correct me if I'm wrong on that one!).
For China Central Asian oil is of the utmost strategic importance --after all, China already IS a Central Asian country!! And by developing the oil&gas industry in the region, Beijing will simultaneously defuse Islamic/breakaway movements (Uighur minority etc.) as petrodollars trickle down to the locals. Moreover, China is bypassing the US-controlled "Persian Gulf" sealane.
As for the US, it's an outsider --geographically speaking anyway... So, the best the US can do about it is to rely on some local power brokers (such as Turkey and Iran). Turkey will collapse because of EU dynamics... so, who's left? Iran. It's that simple!
Gus. |
