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Hu makes his mark in Central
Eurasia
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Chinese President Hu Jintao's first
tour abroad as leader of the world's most populous
nation involved trips to Russia and Kazakhstan, key
players in Central Eurasia, during which he put his
signature on a strategic energy pact with that of
Russian President Vladimir Putin, and also attended the
summit of a major Eurasian body, the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Hu's speeches
during his trip to Moscow included references to a
multi-polar world and a need for the United Nations to
play a central role in Iraq. In an interview with
state-run Russian RTR television and Interfax news
agency on the eve of his trip, Hu also hailed "Russia's
political stability under President Putin's leadership".
Russia and China have emphasized their desire to
increase bilateral trade to US$20 billion a year, from
the current $12 billion per annum. Hu also stressed that
bilateral trade turnover reached $4.5 billion in the
first four months of 2003, or 30 percent up compared to
last year.
Russia is one of the world's major
exporter of energy resources, while China is major
importer, hence bilateral energy cooperation has "broad
prospects", Hu told RTR and Interfax.
Russian
oil major Yukos and China's National Petroleum Corp have
signed a $150 billion oil deal to pave the way for a
pipeline to China to ship up to 700 million tons of oil
from 2005 to 2030. Under the agreement, CNPC will buy up
to 5.13 billion barrels of Russian oil, worth $150
billion, between 2005 and 2030. The $2.5 billion
pipeline will run from Russia's Western Siberian field
to China's Daqing.
The two countries also agreed
to strengthen their defense cooperation. Chinese Defense
Minister General Cao Gangchuan met with his Russian
counterpart on May 30 to discuss arms trade, ties
between the two countries' militaries and global
conflicts. Cao, who accompanied Hu, told reporters after
meeting with Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov that the
Russian-Chinese summit was a "complete success".
"As defense ministers, we agreed that we will
make joint efforts to widen our bilateral cooperation,"
Cao said after talks with Ivanov. "I am glad to note
that Russian-Chinese relations are developing very
positively, and that this includes the important
military sphere," Ivanov told Cao at the start of the
meeting. Neither he nor Cao would give any details after
the talks.
China has become the top customer for
Russia's arms industry, purchasing billions of dollars
worth of jets, missiles, submarines and other military
hardware. India is the second largest importer of
Russian-made arms.
Indeed, the leaders of the
world's two most populous nations met directly. On May
31, Hu met Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in
St Petersburg. Vajpayee reportedly introduced new Indian
initiatives to normalize relations with Pakistan, while
Hu invited Vajpayee to visit China on June 22-26,
according to RIA.
Meanwhile, Russia and India
vowed to increase bilateral cooperation, including joint
military exercises and space programs. After a dinner
banquet for the foreign guests marking the 300th
anniversary of St Petersburg, Putin's hometown, Putin
met Vajpayee on May 30.
"We are working together
in the most sensitive areas. I am not speaking only of
economic cooperation ... but also of developing
military-technical cooperation, cooperation in space,"
Putin said. Putin stated that the two nations "cooperate
in most sensitive areas", including space program.
Vajpayee reportedly retorted that "our cooperation in
various spheres is going very well. Russia is our
trusted friend, and we are very good friends and we have
high hopes in Russia."
Putin noted that Russia
had helped India launch a rocket into space earlier this
month and that the two countries were holding their
first joint naval exercises in the Indian Ocean. The
exercises by a large task force of Russian surface ships
and nuclear attack submarines simulated attacks on US
aircraft carrier groups. The exercise was coordinated
with a mission by long-range bombers. Several Russian
strategic bombers - Tu-95 Bears and Tu-160 Blackjacks -
flew from a base in Central Russia to the Indian Ocean
to simulate an attack by long-range cruise missiles on
US navy ships and Diego Garcia air base.
However, St Petersburg's tricentennial
festivities witnessed no renewed calls for a
Moscow-Beijing-New Delhi axis, an alliance of three
nuclear-armed countries of some 2.5 billion people that
theoretically would be able to balance US power in
coming years.
In December 2002, Putin traveled
to China and India, and speculation re-surfaced about
the three countries ganging up together to form an
"axis" due to a perceived sense among all three that
American power must somehow be checked. Russia, China
and India have a number of converging interests that
could add substance to axis talk. All three were
disturbed by the Iraq war and protested against what
they viewed as a rejection of the rules of the
international game. They still back the primacy of the
UN Security Council in solving crises, and support the
principle of non-intervention in internal affairs of
sovereign states. All three countries have been opposing
missile-defense systems seen as detrimental to their
respective nuclear deterrence.
Apart from shared
concerns of American dominance, the three have other
common interests and mutually reinforcing needs. All
three are weary of militant Islamic groups, and want
stability in Central Eurasia. However, axis talk has so
far remained a matter of speculation.
The
Shanghai Cooperation Organization has been seen as a
convenient forum for the trilateral axis. Now SCO
includes China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, while India has been touted
as a potential candidate to join. India's admission
could raise SCO's significance, Putin stated in December
last year. However, India's accession was not mentioned
during the St Petersburg meetings.
The
presidents of the SCO states gathered in the Kremlin on
May 29 to discuss how to make their organization a
full-fledged institution. The six leaders decided how
and when to form a budget for SCO, with the aim of
turning it , which was formed as a five-member group in
1996, into a viable international body by 2004,
according to their joint declaration. No concrete
details were given.
China's ambassador to
Russia, Zhang Deguang, was appointed the executive
secretary of SCO. The leaders also approved the
organization's emblem and flag. From 2004 on, SCO will
have a secretariat in Beijing and a regional
anti-terrorist force in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek,
the declaration said. The force is due to jointly tackle
such threats as terrorism, separatism, extremism and
drug trafficking. One sign of SCO's transformation is a
plan to hold joint anti-terrorism exercises later this
year in Kazakhstan, involving the armed forces of all
six members.
In addition to discussing beefing
up SCO, the presidents joined forces in calling for
strengthening the role of the UN and a multi-polar
world. The declaration they signed refers to the UN's
"fundamental significance" and "important role", a muted
criticism of the US-led war on Iraq.
Kazakh
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who presided over the
summit, took the lead at a news conference in praising
the progress of SCO, declaring that "the first phase of
formation is virtually completed". Putin stressed that
SCO members all agree there is no alternative to the UN
as a "universal mechanism" and believe the "UN's
efficiency should be increased".
The group has
drafted an anti-terror convention and urged the UN to
play a major role in efforts to eradicate global
terrorism. Presumably, SCO had been originally intended
to band together Russia, China and Central Asian nations
in order to contest America's growing influence in
Central Eurasia.
It has been understood that
China views SCO as a vehicle to consolidate its position
and raise its clout in Central Eurasia without
antagonizing Russia, the traditional power which has
long dominated the region. China has also been keen to
check the US's influence, which has been on the raise in
the wake of September 11, 2001.
Subsequently,
Hu's first tour abroad involved a trip to Kazakhstan for
two days, ending on Tuesday, during which he will meet
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Prime Minister
Imangaly Tasmagambetov and other Kazakh officials, as
well as sign a bilateral cooperation blueprint for
2003-08. Hu's trip to Astana "indicates China's special
attention to Kazakhstan", the Kazakh foreign ministry
has said in a statement.
However, CNOOC Ltd and
Sinopec Group of China were shut out of a recent deal to
buy stakes in the giant Kashagan field in the North
Caspian Sea. CNOOC agreed in March to pay $615 million
for half of the Britain BG Group's stake, or one-twelfth
of the total; the Sinopec Group agreed to the same terms
for the other half. Yet both firms, which are controlled
by the Chinese government, have not clinched the deal.
Arguably, Chinese clout in Central Eurasia remains to be
further strengthened.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times
Online Co, Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
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