Skip to main content
×
Blacklisted Listed News Logo
Menu - Navigation
Menu - Navigation

Cited Sources

2nd Smartest Guy in the World
2nd Amendment Shirts
10th Amendment Center
Aaron Mate
Activist Post
AIER
Aletho News
Ammo.com
AmmoLand
Alliance for Natural Health, The
Alt-Market
American Free Press
Antiwar
Armstrong Economics
Art of Liberty
AUTOMATIC EARTH, The
Ben Bartee
Benny Wills
Big League Politics
Black Vault, The
BOMBTHROWER
Brandon Turbeville
Breaking Defense
Breitbart
Brownstone Institute
Burning Platform, The
Business Insider
Business Week
Caitlin Johnstone
Campus Reform
CAPITALIST EXPLOITS
Charles Hugh Smith
Children's Health Defense
CHRISTOPHE BARRAUD
Chris Wick
CIAgate
Citizen Free Press
Citizens for Legit Gov.
CNN Money
Collective Evolution
Common Dreams
Conscious Resistance Network
Corbett Report
Counter Signal, The
Cryptogon
Cryptome
Daily Bell, The
Daily Reckoning, The
Daily Veracity
DANERIC'S ELLIOTT WAVES
Dark Journalist
David Haggith
Defense Industry Daily
Defense Link
Defense One
Dennis Broe
DOLLAR COLLAPSE
DR. HOUSING BUBBLE
Dr. Robert Malone
Drs. Wolfson
Drudge Report
Economic Collapse, The
ECONOMIC POPULIST, The
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Ellen Brown
Emerald Robinson
Expose, The
F. William Engdahl
FAIR
Farm Wars
Faux Capitalist
FINANCIAL REVOLUTIONIST
Forbes
Foreign Policy Journal
FOREXLIVE
Foundation For Economic Freedom
Free Thought Project, The
From Behind Enemy Lines
From The Trenches
FUNDIST
Future of Freedom Foundation
Futurism
GAINS PAINS & CAPITAL
GEFIRA
Geopolitical Monitor
Glenn Greenwald
Global Research
Global Security
GM RESEARCH
GOLD CORE
Grayzone, The
Great Game India
Guadalajara Geopolitics
Helen Caldicott
Homeland Sec. Newswire
Human Events
I bank Coin
IEEE
IMPLODE-EXPLODE
Information Clearing House
Information Liberation
Infowars
Insider Paper
Intel News
Intercept, The
Jane's
Jay's Analysis
Jeff Rense
John Adams
John Pilger
John W. Whitehead
Jonathan Cook
Jon Rappoport
Jordan Schachtel
Just The News
Kevin Barret
Kitco
Last American Vagabond, The
Lew Rockwell
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion
Libertarian Institute, The
Libertas Bella
LIBERTY BLITZKRIEG
LIBERTY Forcast
Liberty Unyielding
Market Oracle
Market Watch
Maryanne Demasi
Matt Taibbi
Medical Express
Media Monarchy
Mercola
Michael Snyder
Michael Tracey
Middle East Monitor
Mike "Mish" Shedlock
Military Info Tech
Mind Unleashed, The
Mint Press
MISES INSTITUTE
Mises Wire
MISH TALK
Money News
Moon of Alabama
Motherboard
My Budget 360
Naked Capitalism
Natural News
New American, The
New Eastern Outlook
News Deck
New World Next Week
Nicholas Creed
OF TWO MINDS
Off-Guardian
Oil Price
OPEN THE BOOKS
Organic Prepper, The
PANDEMIC: WAR ROOM
PETER SCHIFF
Phantom Report
Pierre Kory
Political Vigilante
Public Intelligence
Rair
Reclaim The Net
Revolver
Richard Dolan
Right Turn News
Rokfin
RTT News
Rutherford Institute
SAFEHAVEN
SAKER, The
Shadow Stats
SGT Report
Shadowproof
Slay News
Slog, The
SLOPE OF HOPE
Solari
South Front
Sovereign Man
Spacewar
spiked
SPOTGAMMA
Steve Kirsch
Steve Quayle
Strange Sounds
Strike The Root
Summit News
Survival Podcast, The
Tech Dirt
Technocracy News
Techno Fog
Terry Wahls, M.D.
TF METALS REPORT
THEMIS TRADING
Tom Renz
True Activist
unlimited hangout
UNREDACTED
Unreported Truths
Unz Review, The
VALUE WALK
Vigilant Citizen
Voltaire
Waking Times
Wall Street Journal
Wallstreet on Parade
Wayne Madsen
What Really Happened
Whitney Webb
winter oak
Wolf Street
Zero Hedge

Is the “3 Seas Initiative” the West’s Answer to China’s Belt and Road?

Published: June 9, 2021 | Print Friendly and PDF
  Gab
Share

To counter not only China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) but also Russia's growing ties with Western Europe, an "alternative" infrastructure drive is being proposed that if and when completed, Washington, London, and Brussels hopes will further contain Russia and cut China off from European markets.

Called the "Three Seas Initiative," it is described in a Bloomberg op-ed titled, "This Is How Europe Can Push Back Against China and Russia," as: 

...a joint endeavor by 12 eastern members of the European Union to update the physical and digital links between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas.

The op-ed argues that the initiative is the only way to fight off "Russian bullying and Chinese meddling." 

But upon closer scrutiny - even the selling points made by the author - Andreas Kluth - reads instead like a thinly veiled attempt to bully and meddle in Europe - and at the expense of the obvious opportunities trade and ties with Russia and China will bring. 

Kluth's argument includes blaming the Soviet Union's neglect of Eastern European nations as the reason they lack modern infrastructure today, claiming: 

Though economically vibrant, most of this region still lags the rest of the bloc in infrastructure. Travel by road and rail takes two to four times longer on average than in the rest of the EU. 

What’s missing in particular is good highways, railway tracks and gas pipes running north and south. This is a legacy of the Cold War. The Soviet hegemons made sure that Russian gas, tanks and troops could easily move east-west, but cared not a hoot about other connections among the countries they occupied.

Yet the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 - 30 years ago. If Eastern Europe currently still lacks modern infrastructure - it would be more appropriate to state that it is Brussels who "cares not" about making improvements. 

The infrastructure proposed is also curious. The op-ed claims: 

Projects include, for example, a port in Croatia that could welcome ships carrying liquefied natural gas — from the U.S., for example — and the pipelines that would bring this gas north to partner countries. Poland already has an LNG terminal.

This is not necessary infrastructure though. Europe already has access to hydrocarbons in the form of Russian energy moved into the region through existing pipelines and at costs much cheaper than LNG shipped across the Atlantic from the United States will ever be.

The inclusion of this "example" reveals Kluth's hand and the true nature of this argument - this isn't about stopping imagined "Russian bullying," this is about imposing very real American bullying.  

In other words, expensive infrastructure would be built specifically to put in place energy imports that would cost more and come with far more strings attached politically than Russian energy. These strings would include - and the op-ed itself mentions this specifically - cutting off relations with both Moscow and Beijing. 

And regarding Beijing - Kluth accuses China of seeking political favor in return for infrastructure investments and construction projects - citing Hungary as an example of a partner nation "compromised" by its relationship with Beijing. Kluth claims that Hungary has blocked EU condemnation of alleged "human rights abuses" by China - never considering that the accusations themselves may have been politically motivated in the first place by opponents of Beijing. 

Kluth - after describing the Three Seas Initiative as a means of escaping "bullying and meddling" - makes clear that US and EU investment in the projects should themselves come with political strings attached - noting: 

...the EU should also be clear about its expectations. First, all involved, including Hungary, must acknowledge the geopolitical subtext and unambiguously declare their allegiance to Brussels, foregoing dalliances with Beijing. Second, the initiative mustn’t become the germ of an eastern bloc that defines itself in opposition to the rest of the EU.

While Russian "bullying" and Chinese "meddling" remain squarely in the realm of politically-motivated accusations - Kluth is openly declaring Washington's and Brussels' intentions to invest in a neglected Eastern Europe are predicated on acquiring unflinching obedience and the full surrender of national sovereignty - a proposition made without any hint of intentional irony. 

Three Seas Initiative: About Primacy, Not Progress 

US foreign policy has been and continues to be predicated on maintaining global primacy. Any nation, anywhere on Earth that challenges Washington's ability to act upon the global stage with absolute impunity is designated an enemy and thus targeted through a combination of political, economic, and even military coercion. 

Two nations that have found themselves on this list for decades are Russia and China. 

Both Russia's re-emergence after the collapse of the Soviet Union as a major global power and China's rise both regionally in Asia and globally - have demonstrably inhibited Washington's worst impulses. 

While Washington describes both Russia and China as threats to global peace and stability - it was Russia's intervention in Syria that prevented the nation from suffering a similar fate as Libya or Iraq at America's hands. 

It has been China's incremental rise that has created viable alternatives for nations across Asia just now working their way out from under the shadow of America's Indo-Pacific "primacy" - a notion still included openly as part of US foreign policy - demonstrated in a "framework" paper published as recently as the Trump administration. 

Notions of "Russian bullying" and "Chinese meddling" are geopolitical projections made by Western policymakers in a bid to justify a continued campaign of coercion - and not just against Russia, China, and nations along their peripheries - but also against allied nations like Germany who seek to diversify their ties between East and West - US sanctions targeting German companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project with Russia being only the latest example. 

Perhaps the ultimate irony of all is that as Washington and Brussels attempt to dangle the promise of modern infrastructure over the heads of Eastern Europe - Kluth of Bloomberg himself admits that China has already come through in the case of Hungary - and Russia has been reliably pumping cheap energy into Eastern and Western Europe since before the collapse of the Soviet Union - and of course - ever since. 

Once again - while pointing the accusing finger elsewhere - the US and its EU partners reveal themselves as the central threat to peace and prosperity. In reality, Chinese infrastructure projects coupled with US-EU investments, and cheap energy from Russia would be most beneficial to the nations of both Eastern and Western Europe - but clearly what is in the continent's best interests run at cross-purposes to Washington's and thus while Russia and China have never demanded exclusive economic ties with Europe - Washington is. 

Brian Berletic is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

TOP TRENDING ARTICLES


PLEASE DISABLE AD BLOCKER TO VIEW DISQUS COMMENTS

Ad Blocking software disables some of the functionality of our website, including our comments section for some browsers.


Trending Now



BlackListed News 2006-2023
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service