The prospect that Europe and Asia might move towards
greater independence has troubled US planners since the second world war. The
concerns have only risen as the "tripolar order" - Europe, North America and
Asia - has continued to evolve.
Every day Latin America, too, is becoming more independent. Now Asia and the
Americas are strengthening their ties while the reigning superpower, the odd man
out, consumes itself in misadventures in the Middle East.
Regional integration in Asia and Latin
America is a crucial and increasingly important issue that, from Washington's
perspective, betokens a defiant world gone out of control. Energy, of course,
remains a defining factor - the object of contention - everywhere.
China, unlike Europe, refuses to be intimidated by Washington, a primary
reason for the fear of China by US planners, which presents a dilemma: steps
toward confrontation are inhibited by US corporate reliance on China as an
export platform and growing market, as well as by China's financial reserves -
reported to be approaching Japan's in scale.
In January, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah visited Beijing, which is expected
to lead to a Sino-Saudi memorandum of understanding calling for "increased
cooperation and investment between the two countries in oil, natural gas and
investment", the Wall Street Journal reports.
Already much of Iran's oil goes to China, and China is providing Iran with
weapons that both states presumably regard as deterrent to US designs. India
also has options. India may choose to be a US client, or it may prefer to join
the more independent Asian bloc that is taking shape, with ever more ties to
Middle East oil producers. Siddharth Varadarjan, the deputy editor of the Hindu,
observes that "if the 21st century is to be an 'Asian century,' Asia's passivity
in the energy sector has to end".
The key is India-China cooperation. In January, an agreement signed in
Beijing "cleared the way for India and China to collaborate not only in
technology but also in hydrocarbon exploration and production, a partnership
that could eventually alter fundamental equations in the world's oil and natural
gas sector", Varadarjan points out.
An additional step, already being contemplated, is an Asian oil market
trading in euros. The impact on the international financial system and the
balance of global power could be significant. It should be no surprise that
President Bush paid a recent visit to try to keep India in the fold, offering
nuclear cooperation and other inducements as a lure.
Meanwhile, in Latin America left-centre governments prevail from Venezuela to
Argentina. The indigenous populations have become much more active and
influential, particularly in Bolivia and Ecuador, where they either want oil and
gas to be domestically controlled or, in some cases, oppose production
altogether.
Many indigenous people apparently do not see any reason why their lives,
societies and cultures should be disrupted or destroyed so that New Yorkers can
sit in their SUVs in traffic gridlock.
Venezuela, the leading oil exporter in the hemisphere, has forged probably
the closest relations with China of any Latin American country, and is planning
to sell increasing amounts of oil to China as part of its effort to reduce
dependence on the openly hostile US government.
Venezuela has joined Mercosur, the South American customs union - a move
described by Nestor Kirchner, the Argentinian president, as "a milestone" in the
development of this trading bloc, and welcomed as a "new chapter in our
integration" by Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president.
Venezuela, apart from supplying Argentina with fuel oil, bought almost a
third of Argentinian debt issued in 2005, one element of a region-wide effort to
free the countries from the controls of the IMF after two decades of disastrous
conformity to the rules imposed by the US-dominated international financial
institutions.
Steps toward Southern Cone [the southern states of South America] integration
advanced further in December with the election in Bolivia of Evo Morales, the
country's first indigenous president. Morales moved quickly to reach a series of
energy accords with Venezuela. The Financial Times reported that these "are
expected to underpin forthcoming radical reforms to Bolivia's economy and energy
sector" with its huge gas reserves, second only to Venezuela's in South America.
Cuba-Venezuela relations are becoming ever closer, each relying on its
comparative advantage. Venezuela is providing low-cost oil, while in return Cuba
organises literacy and health programmes, sending thousands of highly skilled
professionals, teachers and doctors, who work in the poorest and most neglected
areas, as they do elsewhere in the third world.
Cuban medical assistance is also being welcomed elsewhere. One of the most
horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan last
October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers of survivors have to face
brutal winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.
"Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to
Pakistan," paying all the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes John
Cherian in India's Frontline magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed his "deep gratitude" to
Fidel Castro for the "spirit and compassion" of the Cuban medical teams -
reported to comprise more than 1,000 trained personnel, 44% of them women, who
remained to work in remote mountain villages, "living in tents in freezing
weather and in an alien culture", after western aid teams had been withdrawn.
Growing popular movements, primarily in the south but with increasing
participation in the rich industrial countries, are serving as the bases for
many of these developments towards more independence and concern for the needs
of the great majority of the population.
© Noam Chomsky
· Noam Chomsky, the author, most recently, of Imperial Ambitions:
Conversations on the Post-9/11 World, is a professor of linguistics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
