The repeated bombings by Israeli aircraft and the threat of a ground incursion, with a potential catastrophe of biblical dimensions, are having a strong impact on the countries of the South. Both Beijing and Moscow are capitalizing, especially in the Arab and Muslim capitals, on the sentiment in the streets and on the networks. As well as the wear and tear of the most unbreakable allies of the occupying power.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have just joined the Brics group, which they lead. The latter country voted on Monday with Russia and China in the UN Security Council in favor of a truce proposal in the collapsed Gaza.
The calculations in the region, at this dramatic moment, would be different if last March, through the mediation of Beijing, Riyadh and Tehran – a country that in recent years has become closer to Beijing and Moscow – they had not buried the hatchet.
Yesterday, an atomic Vladimir Putin, whose Duma has just left him free to carry out nuclear tests after 33 years, landed in Beijing. His host, Xi Jinping, rolled out the red carpet for him, grateful that his counterpart, the Russian president, did not want to miss the Third World Forum of the New Silk Roads, just as she did not miss the second or the first. .
Putin's exceptional departure from Russia threatens to overshadow the dozens of international leaders who have wanted to be photographed on the tenth anniversary of the Chinese president's most ambitious program. However, the bilateral meeting between Putin and Xi will take place today, with the Gaza war in the background and practically simultaneously with the planned interview in Israel between presidents Joe Biden and Beniamin Netanyahu.
Vladimir Putin has left Russia rarely since launching the invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Among other things, because he has an open case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. A few days ago, Putin traveled to Kyrgyzstan, which does not recognize the jurisdiction of said organization, nor do Russia, China, the United States or Israel.
The Russian president, who did not attend the G-20 summit in New Delhi nor the Brics summit in Johannesburg, had a full agenda yesterday. He met with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, with that of Thailand, Srettha Thavisin – who has just extended the visa-free stay for Russian tourists from 30 to 90 days – as well as with the presidents of Serbia, Vietnam and Mongolia. A new gas pipeline between Russia and China must cross through this last country.
Connectivity is the key. Xi Jinping wants all roads to lead to Beijing. To ensure the supply of raw materials for the world's factory, as well as the export of its manufactures, the Chinese president launched the New Silk Roads ten years ago. A structuring of Eurasia – and even other continents – seen as a full-fledged challenge from London and Washington, mainly.
The countries of the so-called Global South do not have too many illusions about the “multilateral” siren songs that come from Beijing or about the possible virtues of a Sinocentric world. But its elites are happy to allow themselves to be loved by more than one bidder, while its ordinary citizens discover that the infrastructure remains, even when everything else has been depleted.
The fast train that connects Mombasa with Nairobi, in Kenya, or the capital of Laos with Kunming, in China, or more recently, the first high-speed train in Southeast Asia, between Jakarta and Bandung, are some of the examples of this enormous financing and construction effort, close to one billion euros.
However, a China that has left unbridled growth behind will from now on favor less gigantic projects, with less ecological impact and easier financing. Smaller, prettier and cheaper, in the words of Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng yesterday before an audience of foreign executives.
The average amount per project, in fact, has gone from the initial 500 million dollars to the current 300 million.
Among those invited to China stands out the president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, who visited the first museum dedicated to lithium, the white gold essential for the ecological transition that abounds in his country.
The great absentee – in tune with the West – is once again India. At the G-20 summit, its Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, championed an alternative corridor that would link Europe with India, via Israel and Saudi Arabia. A project that, in less than a month, has been blown up with the Hamas massacre and the Israeli retaliation.
The coincidence of the Silk Road Forum with the demolition of Gaza gives Xi the message that China builds and seeks peace, while others divide and destroy. The Ukrainian trench remains open, but US attention is already elsewhere.
